Lenka Kocianová (Savills): Small Business Units have huge potential

Small business units make up a sliver of Czech industrial stock, five regions have none at all — and 2026 is shaping up as the segment’s second-best year on record. I spoke with Savills’ industrial consultant Lenka Kociánová about this slice of the market.

At the moment, she says SBUs account for roughly three percent of total Czech industrial stock. Amazingly, five of the country’s 14 regions have no modern units whatsoever. And completions this year are tracking towards something like 47,000 sqm, which would make 2026 the second-strongest delivery year ever.

The occupiers are small businesses, local entrepreneurs and foreign companies entering the country, and what they want is warehouse, office, showroom and light production or servicing under a single roof. That’s a combination the big logistics parks don’t supply much.

Kociánová is careful about the word “spike”: demand has been building for four or five years, and it looks invisible mainly because the occupiers are stuck. They sit in older, lower-spec premises, they’ve outgrown the footprint, and there is nowhere obvious to go.

Geography compounds it. Greater Prague, South Moravia via Brno, and the Plzeň region together account for more than ninety percent of the SBU market. I asked her how you underwrite a town with no supply and therefore no evidence of demand. Kociánová’s answer is that you have to look at the business environment: local business and industrial activity, employment, infrastructure, accessibility for customers and staff. Mid-sized business leaders know if they move 20km, they’ll lose key people.

The developer field is unusually fragmented for Czech industrial. CTP pioneered the format with CTP Box in Brno, Plzeň and Ostrava; Contera is rolling out its multifunctional Cityside concept across Czech and Slovak cities; VGP has units in České Budějovice; P3 has just announced a new model at P3 Ostrava Central. Underneath sit specialists like ILD and CI Development at Tuchoměřice, Zlatníky-Hodkovice and Jeneč. But so far, no single name dominates.

Source: The Prime