Rental growth in Prague and Brno slowed down in November and December. For the year, rents grew only minimally in the Liberec, Karlovy Vary, and Olomouc regions. In the Ostrava region, they became cheaper. This is based on an analysis using data from Bezrealitky.cz and Sreality.cz.
In Prague, the net rent for a 65-meter flat in good condition in the more expansive city center is between CZK 21,000 and CZK 22,000 per month without utilities. In the towns of the Central Bohemian Region, the average is CZK 15,000; in Brno, it is over CZK 18,000; and in Ostrava, it is CZK 12,000.
“Demand for rentals has been growing. The median rental price for apartments of 40–60 m2 increased by four percent year-on-year. In the last two months, the rent prices on the Sreality.cz portal have more or less stagnated,” Šarlota Smutná, a data analyst at Seznam.cz, said.
Other real estate servers also reported a slowing of rent growth toward the end of the year and, in some cases, a decline.
According to real estate brokers operating in the Moravian regions, rents have now hit the ceiling, mainly due to utility bills. In Prague, however, they may continue to catch up with inflation next year, given the demand.
“After the New Year, it will mainly depend on what energy will do to the tenant’s total spending and purchasing power. They will hurt even more next year than this year. And as far as rent prices are concerned, one thing is the owner’s wish, i.e., the offer price, and the other is the reality of what the tenant can pay, and especially how reliably,” Vladimír Brůna, head of B&K Nemovitostní investice, said.
Rental apartments, especially the larger ones, are a bit easier to find than they were a few months ago. “My husband and I wanted to move from a 1-bedroom apartment in Prague 6 to a bigger one at the beginning of the year. That didn’t make sense. The apartment was already gone or in a desolate state when we arrived. We waited, and in November, we quietly moved to a 3+1 in Karlín,” says Veronika, a young doctor.
“Houses and flats previously unrented by their owners have started to be offered more,” Henryk Mayer of Bezrealitky.cz said. More owners of family homes and larger apartments are trying to compensate for this year’s rising prices, he said. In addition, more new flats purchased by owners directly to rent have also entered the market. Older apartments after renovation have also increased.
Downtown, or commute
Analysts at Bezrealitky.cz have calculated that living an hour’s drive from the center of Prague or Brno means rent is roughly CZK 4,500 lower per month.
However, this saving is reduced by transport costs, especially if you commute by car. Just for comparison: a commute of 25 km every working day (50 km/day) with a consumption of seven liters of gasoline per hundred kilometers costs about CZK 3,000 per month.
It is, therefore, worth commuting mainly from locations on a commuter train or bus. Here, however, the rent tends to be similar to that in the more expansive city center.
A lot depends on the location, but also the furnishings and condition of the apartment. A single room in Prague can be more expensive than a separate, smaller apartment, while the difference in the reach of the center is only a few metro stations.
One nice room (12 m2) in Prague, Žižkov, is rented for 13 500 CZK without fees. However, in Strašnice, you can rent a 1+1 apartment, 37 m2, for 12,000. However, a forty-meter one plus one in Vinohrady is already 21 thousand crowns plus 5400 crowns for utilities and house fees.
Surprising is the price of a 1-bedroom apartment in Braník. The real estate agent has already calculated the net rent at nineteen thousand crowns plus a security deposit equal to the rent and commission. Some other offers in Prague also act as a test of how far the price can be raised. In Liberec, you can rent 1+1 flats for six and a half, eight, or twelve thousand CZK a month at most, and in Rotava (Karlovy Vary Region), even for only 3,500 CZK a month.
Directly in Karlovy Vary, a two-room apartment of 58 m2 is available for eleven thousand a month. In Ostrava, Havířov, and Frýdek-Místek, small flats of thirty to forty meters are available for seven to nine thousand crowns a month.