According to reporting by Aktualne.cz, Prague’s new mayor Zdeněk Hříb is considering a tax on uninhabited apartments, a move he said would target those who have only purchased apartments for investment purposes. He said it should be possible to find out how many apartments are currently empty in cooperation with the electricity distributor Pražská energetika (PRE) which could tell how many units are consuming unrealistically low amounts of energy. Predictably, the idea of the state spying on its citizens and how they choose to use their private property was thrashed by the mayor’s political opponents. Adam Zábranský, a party colleague of the mayor, claims the mayor’s idea is determine how widespread a “problem” the phenomenon of empty flats is for Prague and that the analysis would be anonymous. If the mayor really wants to make more flats available to take the pressure off of skyrocketing prices, he should probably concentrate on the 7-year waiting time for planning and construction permits.
