Prague City Hall has prepared the first project of city-supported cooperative housing, in which two blocks of houses with up to 266 flats should be built near Radlická Street in Prague 5. According to councilor Hana Marvanová (for STAN), the city councils will approve the plan in May, and if the municipality approves it, it will select a construction partner to build the project on the city’s land.
The plan for the support of affordable cooperative housing was approved by the Prague City Council in December 2020. The entire project is intended to support people who do not reach for supported urban rental housing, but are also unable to obtain or pay a mortgage. At the same time, a third of the flats will go to the city, which will use them for rental housing.
Marvanová said that the people of Prague could ideally start joining the team next year. At the same time, the municipality has launched a website and is planning an information campaign. “We have now been contacted by over 300 people before we launched the website, so we expect people’s interest to be quite substantial,” she said.
The cooperatives will have to pay a quarter of the price of the apartment immediately, and will repay the rest as a share of the loan that the cooperative will take out with the bank for the construction. The construction should be completed three to four years after the founding of the cooperative. Applicants for membership will have to have a permanent residence in Prague and will not be able to own other housing. In addition to repaying the loan, the cooperative will also send money to the municipal fund for the development of affordable housing, thus repaying a kind of advance payment for the future purchase of land.
This will be possible after the repayment of the bank loan, ie no earlier than 30 years and no later than 99 years, which is the legal limit of the building right.
The house in Radlická should have a gross floor area of approximately 20,000 square meters in the coming years and will consist of at least two blocks with separate entrances. Inside, there will be 221 to 266 apartments and their average area should range from 54 to 65 square meters. The city also counts on civic amenities. He estimates construction costs at 950 million crowns. With regard to the deposit of 25 percent of the price of apartments, the city will initially invest tens of millions of crowns in the cooperative.
The project at Radlická has already provoked some critical reactions from local residents and associations, especially in connection with the already intensive traffic in the area. According to the mayor of Prague 5, Renáta Zajíčková (ODS), the city district is counting on the municipality to provide important transport structures, such as the planned Radlická radial. The Deputy Mayor of Prague 5, Tomáš Homola (STAN), added that the city’s goal is not to develop into the surrounding landscape, and the plots are and have always been construction.
Marvanová added that the city is working on other similar projects. According to her, the closest to approval is the plan to build about 150 flats in Oistrachova Street, where a memorandum of cooperation between the city and the town hall of Prague 13 is being prepared for approval.
Source: CTK
