Almost a fifth of Czech households with a mortgage will spend up to 75 percent of their income on housing costs. In addition to housing loan repayments, their money goes to other regular payments such as contributions to the repair fund, water and sewerage, energy deposits and insurance. This is according to a survey conducted by the financial advisory company Swiss Life Select among more than 1,000 respondents who are making mortgage payments.
According to the Ipsos survey, 27 per cent of households spend less than a third of their income on housing costs. More than 50 per cent have to spend between one-third and one-half of their monthly income on these costs. According to the authors of the survey, the situation is alarming for 18 percent of households that spend 50 to 75 percent of their income on housing costs.
Households that spend more than half of their income on housing costs are most often at risk in the Liberec Region. Their share there is 29 per cent. In the Zlín Region it is 28 per cent and in the Olomouc Region 27 per cent.
Respondents who spend 50 to 75 percent of their monthly income on housing-related payments live most often in towns with a population of up to 5,000. Approximately two-fifths of them live there. Most of them have an education certificate. In the 18 to 26 age group, 27 per cent are renters, 21 per cent in the 27 to 35 age group and 23 per cent between 36 and 44.
The sharp rise in inflation last year and the increase in prices have hit households that were already on a tight budget due to housing costs. According to the Swiss Life Select survey, 41 per cent of households felt the increase in family budgets last year without having to reduce their spending. A third of them had to start saving. Some 13 percent of households were hit by the rise in spending to the extent that they came out “just about right” or answered in doubt “I don’t know if I can manage to pay everything properly this year”.
The most vulnerable 13 percent of households in the Czech Republic come mainly from the Liberec region, where 24 percent of them are. In the Olomouc Region, their share is 18 percent and in the Moravian-Silesian Region 17 percent.
Roughly a quarter of respondents who have doubts about how they will cope with the increase in spending have primary education and 17 percent live in small towns with a population of no more than 1,000. Currently, this is the most vulnerable group in terms of their ability to repay housing-related obligations and financing.
Source: Ipsos and CTK
