The Palladium, a massive shopping centre flanking one side of Republican Square in downtown Prague, opened to great fanfare in late October and so brought to a close the biggest story of the Czech property market in 2007.

Just five months before, European Property Development (EPD) sold the Palladium to the German fund Hannover Leasing for E500m (£360m), the largest-ever transaction for a piece of property in Central Europe.