what will the facelift gain over the outgoing model ? am hoping for an electric handbrake so it can gain a jumbo console box like the Superb 

The Mk3 Octavia got facelifted in 2017. 

 

Nobody (publicly) knows yet what the spec of the Mk4 will be when launched. 

+1 assume you mean MK4 rather than facelift. I think electric handbrake is a dead cert, not sure about a jumbo console box. As above until it's announced in a few months time everything is speculation.

I've seen adverts for something Octy-like but its not called Octavia anymore

'They' have said what is coming, Superb, Scala, Kamiq, e-citigo, iV Vision (AKA Mybia sometime)