The Železná Ruda recreation centre in the Klatovy region plans to build around seventy urban rental flats in several locations in the coming years. The town of 1,600 permanent residents has got rid of most of its municipal flats in the past, but there is now a severe shortage of them and renting or buying their own flats is unaffordable for many people. This makes it difficult for the council to find staff for the school, nursery or technical services when it cannot offer affordable housing. The intention to build flats, rent gardens or replace public lighting was approved by councillors, according to Mayor Filip Smola (Local – make it a good place to live).
“Unfortunately, the city has got rid of virtually all of its property in the past, especially almost all of its housing stock. Unfortunately, market prices of flats and related rents are becoming unaffordable for most people. We have a huge number of weekend visitors, but they don’t realistically live here during the week, and a lot of holiday flats are empty. But we need apartments for people who work here, perhaps for the city and our organizations,” Smola said. The city owns only 36 rental apartments. “Sometime last year we built eight apartments and within a week 147 locals applied for them,” he noted.
The mayor said if the city wants to retain residents and employees, it must also offer reasonable housing. Rents and housing prices in Železná Ruda skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic and are still often more expensive than in Pilsen and Prague. Owners in the city want as much as CZK 4 million to sell a studio apartment, while in neighbouring Bavarian Železná Ruda it costs CZK 750,000, Smola said.
New urban rental apartments are to be built, for example, on the grounds of a former kindergarten, in a locality near Kandahar, in the Královák service house. The city is also planning to build service apartments and social facilities in the area of the chairlift at Hofmanky. Next year, eight flats are to be built in Šumavská Street, while the largest number of flats – around 40 in three houses – is to be built on the site of the former kindergarten. “We will try to find subsidies, but if we can’t get them, we are considering a mortgage redeemed from the rents,” Smola said.
Similarly to apartments, there is a great interest in rented gardens in the town. “We are registering dozens of applications from local permanent residents, so we want to set up some in the area of the former kindergarten. We have a gardening colony on the other side across the river, and a bridge is planned,” Smola described.
Source: CTK
