The city of Prague has completed a study of its municipal housing fund which found that together with the individual city districts, more than 31,000 flats are publicly owned. Of these, the study found, 7.7 percent are currently empty. The study was carried out at the direction of city councilor in charge of housing, Adam Zabransky, who had the Institute of Urban Planning prepare the study. “Unrepaired flats, whether they’ve been entrusted to the city districts or not, we need to repair as soon as possible. The Fund for Affordable Housing provides CZK 500m for the reconstruction of flats through subsidies and we can offer districts another CZK 500m through non-interest loans,” said Zábranský. IPR director Ondřej Boháč said that along with increasing the number of municipal flats, “Prague needs to speed the planning process and open brownfields up to construction. If we’re able to start providing these conditions, the number of affordable flats will start to rise.”
