Na Příkopě is the 18th Most Expensive Street in the World

A study done by Cushman and Wakefield, and advisory firm, shows that Prague’s Na Prikope street is the world’s 18th most expensive in terms of real estate rents.

Rent on the mainly pedestrian road, known as the tourist shopping main street, can reach 2820 euro per square meter.

Table: Country chart by the most expensive retail streets

Note: Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) within China

Jan Kotrbáček, Partner & Head of CEE Retail Agency Team, Cushman & Wakefield: “The local retail market is relatively young compared with western countries, since good quality retail on an international scale has been built here only during the last 30 years since the fall of the communist regime. This is why it still has great potential for further improvement.”

Macroeconomic and demographic parameters play a great role as well. The GDP keeps on growing across the CEE Region (and is set to grow faster than in the West in the future) while the purchasing power of the local citizens is growing too.

The Czech Republic also benefits from a high number of visitors – they generate 50 per cent of Prague’s retail turnover. Prague has been regarded as a highly attractive and safe tourist destination for a long time, boasting 7.9 million visitors and 18.3 million overnight stays a year.

Prague’s importance is underscored by the development of the Prague Airport where the number of tourists served has been growing significantly – it has almost doubled over the last 10 years.

In turn, premium brands prefer Pařížská, which represents Prague’s prime luxury segment and follows Na Příkopě closely in terms of rental value. Celine opened its shop in this main street of Central European luxury retail last year and there are rumours that Chanel and other major brands will follow suit in the near future.

Prague’s high streets also respond to the trends that are currently moving the entire retail market: “Retailer structure is changing; we see growing interest on the part of the leisure segment, which comes up with leisure concepts attractive for tourists such as various museums, and the F&B segment, or catering facilities. One specific example is the Time Out Market with its food hall concept, which will become part of the Savarin project in the centre of Prague,” Jan Kotrbáček explains.

Notes on the Main Streets Across the World methodology:

The ‘most expensive street’ concept: This means the most expensive/attractive retail streets based on the amount of rent – this is what reflects and determines the attractiveness of a street. The chart does not work with the prices of goods – the streets are not the most expensive from the viewpoint of customer prices.

The rent amount parameter: The chart works with the highest achieved amount of rent per sq m for an ideal 100 sq m of space (i.e., if the area is a multiple of that, the price is not simply multiplied) with the ideal conditions (e.g., the perfect shop windows) based on the ‘Zone A method’ used in Western Europe (rental value at a distance of 10 m from the shop window).