Prague Airbnb flat owners asking for mortgage deferrals
The collapse of tourism has meant that thousands of flats in Prague have stopped producing income for their owners and for the companies that manage them. Hospodářské noviny features the story of Zuzana Benšová who set up her company Seven Keys to offer leasing services to the owners of flats who wanted their property to make an income. As the business grew, she hired more people to help manage and clean the properties she looks after. Benešová, whose company charges roughly 20 percent of a flat’s earnings, says some of her clients are simply resigned to the reality that they won’t be making any money for the foreseeable future. But many are already visiting their banks to request mortgage payment deferrals. It’s estimated that up to one-third of new flats that are for the purpose of renting them out and short-term arrangements have until recently been the most profitable. Benešová says her company isn’t in trouble yet because she acts as a middle man, but other companies who rent apartments directly from owners and then lease them out through Airbnb are now in difficulties. Hotels have been hit just as hard by the crisis, leading the president of the Confederation of Commerce Retail and Tourism to warn that this is “one of the biggest crises of this millennium” while the Association of Hotels and Restaurants is estimating the potential challenge to the sector at CZK 35bn.
