Prices for flats may have risen for years in Prague, but depending on your rationale when buying one, it may not be the best investment. Working with data from Bezrealitky.cz, Hospodarske noviny reports that the average 50 sqm apartment costs around CZK 4.6 million, or CZK 92,000 per square meter but as of Q3 produced just CZK 273 in rent, or barely CZK 14,000 per month. That works out to a 28-year wait until the flat pays for itself. HN concedes that the figure doesn’t account for rising rents, but it also doesn’t make any assumptions about taxes or the need for capital investments. By contrast, it writes that the same apartment in Pardubice would make a return after just 20 years. And what the pandemic has made clear is that Prague is a far more volatile market, dependent to a great extent on the tourism industry. While rents in Prague have fallen to CZK 273 per square meter per month, they’re currently averaging CZK 277 in Brno, while prices for flats are 16 percent lower.
