Prague, May 5 (CTK) – Four out of five Czechs live in their own house or flat now, which is a high figure in comparison to Western Europe, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes on Thursday and quotes sociologist Tomas Samec as saying people consider their own housing a life success.
The number of tenants has decreased from 33 percent ten years ago to about 20 percent at present, according to the Eurostat data, and their number will be further decreasing, HN writes.
It writes that housing ownership has recently been beefed up by low mortgage interests.
“Last year was a record one in terms of the volume of mortgages and we expect this year to be even better,” Ondrej Hak, from Equa bank, told HN.
The advantageous conditions will most probably move the Czech Republic closer to East European countries where own housing is typical. The highest percentage (96.1 percent) is in Romania, HN writes, but adds that the quality is the lowest in Europe.
Romania is followed by Slovakia and Lithuania, while in the neighbouring Germany and Austria, every other person is a tenant, HN writes.
However, the ownership of a flat or house has its disadvantages because “it decreases people’s opportunities to move in search of work,” Jan Vozarik, deputy chairman of the Association of Tenants, told HN.
The Association of Real Estate Offices secretary-general, Jan Boruvka, told HN that the prevalence of housing ownership is largely due to the privatisation after the fall of the previous regime in the 1990s.
“Community flats were sold cheaply then and their purchase could be afforded by people who otherwise would be unable to buy them,” he said.
Boruvka said the Czech Republic has been lagging behind in long-term leases which are an alternative to ownership housing in Western Europe.
Tenants can live at one place for decades while the costs of the real estate management are paid by the owners, HN writes.
Another trend that has spread to the Czech Republic is living in small-area flats which are popular in Toky, Hong Kong, London and New York, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes.
The micro-flats measure 11 and more square metres. Under the Czech law, they are in fact accommodation units because a flat must measure minimally 18 square metres.
Abroad, the small-area flats are mainly used as startup accommodation for young people who study or have their first job. In the Czech Republic, many see a good investment opporunity in them, LN writes.
In Prague, it is estimated that this type of flats constitutes about 5 percent of the overall offer, LN writes.
Sixty percent of the buyers of the flats are investors and 40 percent the owners use them for their own housing, LN writes.
