In the current unfavourable financial situation, living in a rental property will be more profitable than paying off a mortgage for one’s own home. More than half of people living in rented accommodation would like to move into their own home, but in almost two-thirds of cases they cannot afford to do so. On average, it takes almost 15 annual salaries to buy a flat in the Czech Republic. The unavailability of their own housing is thus leading to an involuntary increase in interest in rented housing. This is the result of a survey conducted by Česká spořitelna, Europe in Data and the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the results of which were presented to journalists today. The survey was carried out in May this year among 2,000 respondents aged between 18 and 65.
“The average amount of new mortgage loans is currently around CZK 2.7 million. Most often, Czechs take out a home loan with a repayment term of 27 years,” said Petra Skrbková, head of the Housing team at Česká spořitelna. According to the survey, one in four Czechs is currently paying off a mortgage.
In the Czech Republic, 22 percent of the population lives in rented accommodation, which is involuntarily caused by the unavailability of their own housing due to high mortgage loans and inflation, according to Tomáš Carba of the Rental Housing Association. “In the Czech Republic, interest in rental housing has grown significantly over the past year. Even the actual term rental housing renaissance is already being used among experts,” Carba said.
According to experts, housing unaffordability has worsened significantly in recent years. Carba said there are currently over 150,000 people in housing need and the current housing situation is making the whole problem worse.
For more than half of the Czechs, housing costs are a big burden on the family budget, and for one in ten of them even a very big burden. “For almost 40 percent of us, the situation has worsened significantly compared to two years ago, before the energy crisis and the period of high inflation. At that time, housing costs were a major burden for only a third of Czechs,” said Kamila Fialová of the Institute of Sociology of the CAS.
According to the latest Eurostat data, 78 percent of all Czechs live in their own home, which is almost 10 percent higher than the European average. According to the survey, a significant part of the population lives in family houses and apartments of relatives or in their own or cooperative flats. “Ownership shares are influenced, among other things, by the structure of housing and historical development. In countries with a higher proportion of rural population, the proportion of households living in their own home tends to be higher. Conversely, in countries where there is a higher proportion of people living in large cities, there is often a higher proportion of rental housing,” Fialová added.
Despite the unfavourable financial situation in the Czech Republic, 90 percent of Czechs are satisfied with the quality and size of their housing.
Source: CTK
