No one applied for the tender in which the capital city was looking for a private partner for the construction of the first cooperative housing project on city land, even after a year since it was announced, and the municipality had to cancel it, according to Vít Hofman, Prague’s spokesman. The city was looking for a partner for the construction of two blocks of houses with up to 266 flats in Radlická Street in Prague 5.
The partner the municipality was looking for was to establish a cooperative together with the city and then ensure the construction of the apartment buildings on city land. The cooperative would then be joined by Prague residents, who would get flats up to a third cheaper than the market price. One third of the flats would be retained by the municipality for rental housing purposes.
The deadline for submitting bids in the tender, which the city announced at the end of last July, was 30 June this year, according to Hofman. “No bids were submitted in the tender within the deadline for submission of bids, so we were obliged under the Public Procurement Act to cancel the tender in such a case,” the spokesman said. He added that further action would depend on the decision of the city’s management.
The rules for the construction of supported cooperative housing on city land were discussed at length in the last parliamentary term, and the tender for the first project in Radlická was approved by the then councillors last June. The intention was to enable the construction of middle-class housing on more affordable terms. The advantage of the model, according to the municipality’s representatives, is that the cooperative will not have to buy land, the price of which will be reduced by the cost of the project. The cooperative will be able to buy the plot from the city only after the loan for the construction has been repaid. Support for cooperative housing is also in the programme declaration of the current coalition of Together (ODS, TOP 09, KDU-ČSL), Pirates and STAN.
Source: CTK
