Real estate agencies have not yet seen a significant drop in prices for real estate owned by Russian citizens in Karlovy Vary. However, they do not rule out that the pressure of sanctions due to the war in Ukraine may force Russian owners to sell apartments at a real price. The Russians own hotels and a large number of mainly luxury apartments in the spa town. However, they are still offered at unrealistically high prices.
According to Mayor Andrey Pfeffer Ferklová (YES), prices for luxury apartments are rather stagnant. “For example, the prices of ‘normal’ flats and residential real estate generally do not fall, but rather rise, as do the prices of recreational buildings,” said the mayor.
“I assume that they will not be sold for a longer period of time at set prices. I recorded a certain decrease in commercial real estate, especially accommodation and spa capacities, which the owners gradually began to get rid of not only as a result of contact, but also the subsequent diplomatic crisis conflict in Ukraine,” said Pfeffer Ferklova. “All this, of course, means almost zeroing the Russian clientele, and real estate, which was built or reconstructed especially for this clientele, will have to look for another clientele or another use, at least in the medium term,” the mayor estimates.
However, the prices of large and expensive apartments are still beyond the reach of ordinary buyers who would like to live in them. “The problem is a bit that Russian citizens used to buy expensive and still want to sell more expensive. So there are a little more of those flats on offer now, but they are overpriced. But it is possible that the situation will start to push them to reduce prices. At first there is nothing “It is possible that it will gradually move a bit,” said Dagmar Jánská, director of the Karlovy Vary Czech Real Estate Company.
According to Jánská real estate market, the vacancy of flats, which are usually empty or rented during the spa season, would help. But they would have to be sold at normal prices. Normally, the houses of Russian owners are offered for prices of four, five or more million, with the exception of prices of over ten million crowns. However, as Jánská pointed out, these are mostly apartments in the spa part of the city. “It’s nice there, but it must also be taken into account that they have to get there, park, there are no ordinary shops and the like,” the real estate agent describes the disadvantages of luxury apartments.
But the sale of Russian flats faces unexpected problems. “Russian owners are usually investors who live in Russia, and now that their property is being sold, our brokers are working on how to transfer their money. It is not ideal for them to open a current account in another state, because even there they can achieve an embargo. for this reason, some real estate sales are now suspended,” Dagmar Schejbalová, a spokeswoman for the Remax real estate company.
According to her, the situation in Prague is different from that in Karlovy Vary. For example, those who have one apartment in Prague keep it. But investors, who have ten or more apartments, are trying to sell them, even at a lower price. Prices for these apartments have fallen by as much as 20 percent. But in Karlovy Vary, according to Schejbalová, sales are limited precisely because there is usually nowhere to send money.
After all, these flats are included in the offers of real estate agencies, especially those in the spa part of the city. Their Russian owners used them mainly for rent. But after two years of coronavirus pandemics, when almost no one from abroad could get to the spa, rental income fell to a minimum.
Even if, according to Schejbalová, more flats from Russian owners hit the real estate market in Karlovy Vary, the question of whether they would be available to a normal Czech client is all the more so as mortgage and energy prices are rising. While prices in the Czech Republic are estimated by real estate agents to stagnate in the coming period, in Karlovy Vary prices may go down to bring them closer to the buyers’ options.
Sanctions against Russia and specific oligarchs are a big scarecrow for some property owners in Karlovy Vary. According to the President of the Karlovy Vary Region, Petr Kulhánek (for STAN), the Ministry of the Interior has already begun to find out whether some properties do not belong to the people who are subject to sanctions. “If it turns out that it is possible to freeze this property, it would help us a lot in the refugee crisis. It is not just about apartments, but also hotels. These could be hundreds of vacancies where Ukrainian refugees could find accommodation before the war,” said Kulhánek.
Source: CTK
