Valuo.cz: “Housing Prices Increasing Nationwide, Not Only in Prague”

Valuo.cz, an online real estate tool for professionals, released aggregate data spanning the August and July sales of apartments in 13 cities for the past three years.

The sales revealed an alarming trend: housing prices are increasing nationwide, demonstrating that costly real estate is not a problem in Prague alone.

More specifically, the data demonstrated that Prague’s housing value increased by 38% since 2018 — the smallest price difference on the list of 13 cities.

That difference is followed by Karlovy Vary, where housing increased by 48% over the course of the last three years. Ústí nad Labem, however, experienced growth of over 100%, followed closely by Ostrava, which experienced a 98% increase in housing over the past three years. 

Valuo.cz founder, Radek Šitera, noted in 2020 alone, the price of apartments in Ústí nad Labem rose by 44 percent. However, apartments here were still sold at the cheapest value comparatively, with sales averaging at 31,316 crowns per square meter.

Despite the smaller percentage increase in pricing, Prague’s housing remains more expensive. 

“In the capital today, you will pay an average of CZK 106,750 per square meter. An apartment with an area of ​​75 square meters in Prague will cost you CZK 8,000,000, while in 2018 you would pay ‘only’ CZK 5,800,000 for the same property,” Šitera said. 

A previous Prague Morning article noted that the average price for an apartment in 2020 was around 95,196 CZK per square meter and that during the fourth quarter of 2020, Prague’s second-hand apartments fluctuated above 100,000 CZK per square meter — a first-ever.

The situation Šitera described is similar to that of most cities surveyed, and experts over the years have suspected the Czech Republic is dealing with a housing crisis due to costlier real estate. 

Data published by the European statistics agency Eurostat, indicates that the Czech Republic experienced the fourth-highest rate of property growth of the EU nations during the first quarter of this year.

Per Czech Radio, Petr Dufek — Chief analyst of ČSOB bank — told the Czech News Agency that there was no end in sight for inflation on the Czech real estate market. He also noted that even if housing prices in the Czech Republic stagnated for the rest of this year, they would still be on average 8.4 percent higher than the year prior. 

For many Czechs in the capital, renting has become a popular housing option due to both increased real estate prices and the pandemic.

Bezrealitky owns around a fifth of the share of all rents in the Czech Republic, and 40% share of all rents in Prague. Last year, they reported that 47,000 houses and flats were rented — the largest tally ever documented through their interface. People in other regions reacted similarly, with the Liberec region experiencing a 38% increase in rented property.