At the end of the first quarter of this year, the Prague real estate market offered only 3,200 new apartments. According to Central Group statistics, there were only 233 completed and ready to move in. Even 10 years ago, buyers could choose from more than ten times the number of completed vacant flats. Roughly one-fifth of the current total offer of vacant flats (over 600) is offered by the largest Czech residential builder Central Group in eight locations in Prague.
“There are only 233 new Prague flats ready for immediate occupancy, which is the absolute minimum. In 2012, there were more than ten times them – 2,800 – and five years ago only about three times as many. The reasons for this development are well-known – high demand and a small number of newly permitted projects, because the permitting process is still not accelerating,” says Michaela Tomášková, Executive Director of Central Group. “In this perspective, the launch of 14 just completed apartments in the Libeňský Park Residence on the market is a significant novelty for those interested. Thanks to its unique location at the Palmovka metro station, most of the 95 apartments were sold long before completion,” he adds.
All apartments have luxury bathrooms and vinyl floors. Originally designed houses have wooden windows and glass railings on the balconies. The façade of houses with brick strips and cembrite is also solved above standard. Selected apartments are equipped with air conditioning or heat recovery with cooling for healthy and quiet living and energy savings. Most apartments have their own underground parking space and cellar, as well as outdoor space – balcony, terrace or front garden.
1,400 flats under construction throughout Prague:
Central Group is currently continuing construction in 7 locations in Prague. Most flats – almost 450 – are growing in Prague 10 in Chodovec, other flats are being built in Prague 9 in Letňany or in Prague 5 in Zličín. Central Group also has almost four hundred flats under construction in the Park District in Prague 3.
“It was in the Park District, where construction has been underway since February, that we started selling another 40 luxury apartments with air conditioning a few days ago. Among them are flats of smaller dispositions, but also unique larger flats in a twelve-storey apartment building – one of the dominants of the entire city block at Basel Square,” explains Tomášková. “Almost 400 apartments that we have already launched in the Park District are selling fast. Clients also take advantage of the fact that in the summer event we give the equipment of the apartment for up to half a million, when buying an apartment in all locations on offer, “he adds.
The second life of brownfields: new green neighborhoods:
The park district demonstrates Central Group’s current focus on building entire new neighborhoods resulting from the challenging transformation of neglected brownfields. It is also unique with its architectural solution, which is backed by 9 leading studios. The overall architectural and urban concept of the area from the renowned studio of Jakub Cigler also envisages the creation of a 1.5-hectare park, a pedestrian zone with water features and a number of new small shops, services, restaurants and cafes. The advantage of the project, the first stage of which will be completed in 2024, is also the location just five minutes walk from the Želivského metro station.
Another Central Group project, which arises from the decontamination and revitalization of a neglected industrial area, is Tesla Hloubětín in Prague 9 or the new European-format district Westpoint in Prague 6. More than 130,000 new flats are currently being prepared in the capital. Central Group is involved in the preparation of about a quarter of them.
One-fifth of the new Prague apartments are from Central Group:
According to data from the Czech Statistical Office, a total of 40,247 flats have been built in apartment buildings in Prague over the last 10 years. The Central Group has participated in one-fifth (7,519) of housing construction in the metropolis in the last decade.
About a quarter of flats were built in the last 10 years in Prague 9 and a fifth in Prague 10
Source: CZSO, Central Group
“Most new flats were built in Prague 9 (almost 26%). It is followed by Prague 10 with less than a fifth share and then Prague 5 and 4, in which almost 15% of flats were completed. In total, these four districts account for almost three quarters of all completed flats in the last 10 years. And this is also the part of Prague that awaits the greatest development in the future. This is the area with the largest number of development areas, especially brownfields, ”explains Tomášková.
The main reason for the deepening deficit of new flats in Prague is their slow permitting. The offer has been stable around the level of three thousand flats for a year now. About the same number of apartments per year the authorities allow to build. This leads to a critical shortage of flats to buy and rent, which in addition pushes housing prices extremely higher.
The situation became even more complicated in connection with the arrival of a wave of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. The metropolis is a preferred destination for people fleeing the war, 84,000 have already reported staying in it. According to estimates in the country, respectively. A quarter of them will remain in the metropolis for a long time, in the case of a war lasting over a year up to 40 percent. For Prague, this would mean an extraordinary increase in the number of thousands of inhabitants in one year beyond the annual increase.
