The governor of the Czech National Bank Jiří Rusnok has suggested a progressive tax to help reduce the severity of the current housing crisis in Prague. With far fewer flats coming on the market than are being completed by developers, politicians are looking for ways to place existing apartments back on the market. Unused units acquired by investors have come under fire recently, leading to a controversial suggestion by the Prague Pirate party to use power company records to find out which apartments are being used. Rusnok said this was pointlessly complicated and that it would be enough to compare the property registry with the registry of people. He predicted that if people who own several apartments were taxed for them at a higher rate, they would put some of them on the market. But he also said that young people couldn’t expect to be able to afford a flat in the center immediately after graduating.
