Attic apartment – illustrative photo.
Prague – The average price of older apartments in the Czech Republic fell by nine percent year-on-year to 82,351 crowns per square meter, which brought about an overall increase in sales by two thirds compared to the year before. In Prague, however, the least number of older apartments have been sold in four years. This follows from a study by the real estate group European Housing Services (EHS), which uses data from its founding members, real estate services Bezrealitky and Maxima Reality. ČTK has the report available.
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The prices of older apartments in Prague stopped falling in the spring and rose by one percent quarter-on-quarter, according to EHS, to 113,187 crowns per square meter, but fell by 7.9 percent year-on-year. Sreality.cz reports that the asking price of older apartments in Prague is currently 117,883 crowns per square meter, which is a year-on-year drop of six percent. In the Central Bohemia region, prices rose by eight percent quarter-on-quarter and are almost the same as a year ago (CZK 76,280/m2). The reason, according to the EEC, is that people are moving to nearby cities. In Kladno, Beroun, Roztoky, Neratovice or Benešov, more apartments were sold in the first quarter than in the whole of 2021, and sales are triple the long-term average, according to the survey.
The year-on-year decline in the prices of older apartments occurred in most regions, and according to the EHS, they are therefore being sold the same as a year ago. “Czech real estate will become a laboratory by the summer, where the limits of supply and demand will be tested in the regions. Czechs still have money and the real estate market has not lost any of its credibility for them,” said Hendrik Meyer, head of the EHS real estate group and real estate digital service Bezrealitky.
In Brno, the prices of older apartments fell by seven percent compared to the end of 2022, and an older apartment is now sold for less than 81,500 crowns per square meter, the same as in the summer of 2021. This is due to a decrease in supply, which caused the disappearance of higher quality and more expensive properties and there is no increase in sales below the price. “The owners of Brno flats are waiting for the end of the current price storm, and if nothing pressures them to sell, they have no reason to approach the current prices,” Meyer assessed the situation.
According to the analysis of the development companies Skanska Residential, Trigema and Central Group, the price difference between new buildings and older apartments continues to increase as expected. According to them, this is currently 24 percent and they estimate it to be 30 percent in the future. Developers reported that a square meter of a new apartment cost an average of 151,951 crowns in Prague in the first quarter of this year.
Rent continues to rise, according to the EHS, it reached a new high in Prague and a square meter was offered for an average of 338 crowns. The real estate server Flat Zone reports that the average rent in the capital is 407 crowns per square meter, which is 17 percent more than a year ago.
According to EHS, the rent in the Central Bohemian Region is for the first time at 240 crowns per square meter square. However, the average rental price fell in Brno, to 272 crowns per square meter. Meyer said that a rather optimistic scenario is being fulfilled, and although rents are becoming more expensive, in the vast majority of cases this growth is around ten percent. That is significantly less than the amount of inflation, he added.
