>> Attic apartment – illustrative photo.
Prague – More than half of Czechs plan to change their housing situation or are currently changing it, most often they want to buy real estate or renovate their existing housing. Compared to last year, however, the interest in changing housing fell by six percentage points, and at the same time, there was an increase in those who completely rule out a change in housing situation, from 17 to 21 percent. The reason is the ongoing difficult economic situation. This follows from a survey by the Ipsos agency for the Wienerberger company. On behalf of the company, Marie Lesáková informed about this in a press release today.
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According to the survey, the majority of Czech residents live in apartments, typically with three to five rooms. Rental housing predominates in smaller apartments, while owner-occupied housing prevails in larger ones. More than two fifths of Czechs then live in family houses, usually with four to six rooms.
Roughly a tenth of those who want to change their housing situation, i.e. renovate their existing housing, or move to a larger or own property, are already working on the change. Roughly a quarter of respondents who are just getting ready to change their housing are thinking about buying a house and 13 percent about building a family home. The rest plan to live in apartments or renovate their existing residence. Wienerberger attributes this recovery in the real estate market to falling asking prices and the need to protect savings against inflation, according to a news release.
According to the survey, four percent of Czechs plan to build their own family home. Most investors plan to combine construction by themselves with help from craftsmen or companies. A quarter of families intend to build the entire house themselves in order to save labor costs. The number of investors who are interested in turnkey construction decreased from 28 percent to 21 percent year-on-year. “It's cheaper. We can work gradually, whenever the finances are available. If we should have professionals, we need to have the finances together, and that's not possible these days, unless we want to sign up with a bank,” said one of the respondents.
In addition to new buildings, the trend of renovations continues, which according to the authors of the survey has been going on since the time of the coronavirus epidemic. Last year, 31,967 building permits were issued for residential premises, of which reconstructions accounted for 46 percent. “Apart from the need for urgent repairs, the fact that the costs of reconstruction are in the order of hundreds of thousands plays a significant role in this development, and people often invest their savings precisely in housing reconstruction in order to protect them from inflation and, moreover, to increase the value of their property,” the company said. .
A quarter of Czechs are currently renovating or planning to renovate a property, very often with their own efforts. The majority are renovating interiors, a fifth are repairing or will repair the perimeter masonry, and 17 percent are changing the roof.
The survey was conducted by the Ipsos company among approximately 1,000 respondents aged 20 to 60 across all regions. Men made up 70 percent of the respondents, the rest were women, all of them have a net monthly household income of over 15,000 crowns. Wienerberger is the largest producer of fired bricks and roof tiles in the Czech Republic.
