Foreign buyers have contributed significantly to record sales on the Czech residential market, as have cheap mortgages. The most active of these non-Czech investors have been Russians and Slovaks, writes Hospodářské noviny. But while demand from the Slovaks is driven by the need for homes from people who work in Prague, Russians and citizens from the former Soviet Union countries see Czech properties as a welcome opportunity to export their money from Russia with the weak ruble and imminent state bankruptcy. The Czech Exclusive agency recorded a 100-percent increase in demand from Russians y-o-y, while Century 21 reports a several-fold increase in acquisitions by Russians and Kazakhs as well. Central Group’s spokesman Milan Jankovský told the paper that Russians, Kazakhs, and Ukrainians bought 15 percent of the total number of flats sold in 2014 by the developer.
