Mrs. Helena and her husband live in one of the city apartments. But after the increase, they would have to move out. Not even two of them would make money on such a rent.
“We live on the fourth floor in 3 + 1, and we pay rent 9 900. We will be homeless if we had to pay 18 000, in two it can’t be tightened,” the couple agree.
“I don’t understand why at this time, when we hear everywhere how difficult the years will be, why Prague has decided to increase the rent in its city flats significantly at the moment,” says economist Lukáš Kovanda.
For the time being, the change will only apply to newly concluded contracts; for existing tenants, councilors plan to increase it later. This is allegedly due to a coronavirus pandemic.
However, the City has not yet indicated when the increase in current contracts will occur. Now the price for one square meter is 56 to 73 crowns per month. After the price increase, it will be doubled.
“By significantly increasing rents in city flats in this way, they are contributing to the growth of the overall level of rents in the entire metropolis and possibly in the adjacent areas,” says Kovanda.
“We are already looking outside Prague,” said one of the tenants when asked by TV Nova. “A lot of people will be out of work, and now they have a hard time coping with 10,000 or 15,” another tenant added.
The main purpose of city apartments is to provide affordable housing for groups of people who would not have a normal, market rent.
“These people have wasted 10, 20 years in a city apartment and now they will learn that the rents will go up steeply, so it can be taken as a kind of injustice towards them,” the broker described the situation.
“Thanks to the newly set amount of rent in city flats, housing will still be very affordable for tenants, but at the same time the city’s income for maintenance and expansion of the housing stock will increase,” says Adam Zábranský, Prague City Councilor for Housing and Transparency.
“Prague has been in surplus for a long time, almost 10 years. I don’t know why it has to raise additional income in this way,” adds Kovanda. Seniors and tenants of barrier-free flats will automatically have lower rents, due to the increased vulnerability of these groups.
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