Hospodářské noviny claims that the residential developer Ekospol forcing clients who signed up to buy flats before construction began at current market prices. The company is able to do this if the reservation contract has run out in the meantime, but the company’s clients are often shocked by the difference in price as inflation in real estate has been growing at a frenetic pace. Ekospol is reportedly willing to return the reservation fee (usually in the tens of thousands of crowns) to clients who refuse to buy their flat at the new price. But this small comfort for a family that had counted on buying their new flat at the original price. Ekospol is counting on the wording of the reservation contract, which allows it flexibility in case of “unexpected circumstances”, which in this case it could argue are higher construction prices. HN reports that Ekospol took back 129 flats in this way in 2016 and put them back on the market, often at a price of CZK 1m or more than the original price.
