The town of Hradec Králové wants to acquire apartments for rent from private owners so that it can sublet them to people in housing need. The city will start looking for flats to sublet in the coming weeks, and the pilot phase of the project should last two years, until the end of October 2025. The city does not have enough apartments of its own for people in need, announced today, Pavel Vrbický (Piráti), Deputy Mayor for Property Management.
According to Vrbický, the system should be beneficial for all parties. “The owner of the flat will have a guaranteed rent for the whole time by agreement with the city and will get a serious tenant in the city. The city will assume all risks of temporary vacancy or damage to the apartment by the client, it will also pay the security deposit and cover any necessary repairs,” Vrbický said. In exchange for this security, he said, the tenant will receive from the city a market rent reduced by 20 percent, which corresponds to roughly CZK 180 per square meter per month.
The city intends to provide rented apartments to people who are able to pay the rent and have the responsibility to use rental housing. The city will charge subtenants the same rent as it will pay to a private tenant; it will not pay anything extra for the subtenant. However, the subtenant will not be required to post the usual security deposits on the open market or pay a fee to a real estate agent. “Single mothers, for example, who are currently living in the city’s hostel, could get access to housing,” Vrbický said.
He said the city would be happy to pay for any apartment it manages to contract from private investors. He estimated that the city could occupy about 20 apartments with people in need who are able to meet the requirements for rental housing. “We will first carefully screen the clients we will house in such apartments,” Vrbický said.
The city has nearly 1,000 apartments of its own for different groups of residents in need of support. Of those, nearly 700 are social apartments with reduced rent, 132 are starter apartments and the city has about 160 apartments set aside for families with children. In total, the city has about 1,340 apartments. Hradec Králové has over 90,000 inhabitants.
Source: Hradec Králové and CTK
Photo: Wikipedia
