The Ražský magistrate wants to achieve at least 500 new city flats in the metropolis every year by 2030. In total, at least 9,000 flats should be added to the metropolis per year by the same year. This follows from the housing strategy approved today by city councilors. The strategy will be discussed by representatives next week, and if approved, further concrete action plans for specific areas will follow. In recent years, Prague has been facing a housing crisis and ever-increasing housing prices.
“While in the previous concept from 2004 the need for privatization of the housing stock was emphasized a lot, on the contrary we clearly say in this strategy that we want to end privatization and on the contrary that we want to build municipal flats to a greater extent,” said Pirates, who is in charge of the city’s housing stock. Including the flats of the municipality and city districts in 2019, it numbered about 31,500 flats, in 2030, according to the strategy, it should be at least 35,000. New city flats are practically not created in the last decade.
The city plans to strengthen its own construction and also to cooperate with private individuals, whether they are development companies, construction cooperatives or smaller civic associations, in Germany called baugruppe. Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09) said that the city has set up its own Prague development company for this purpose, which is in charge of preparing municipal land for housing construction.
He also stressed the need for cooperation with the private sector. “We are not afraid to resolve conflicting issues and we are looking for a result,” he said. The chairman of the Housing Committee, Pavel Zelenka (Prague Sobě), added that all plans for housing must be long-term and need to be worked on systematically.
By 2030, according to the strategy, socially excluded localities should completely disappear from the metropolis and the number of children living in asylums and hostels for a long time should drop to zero. From about 3,250 homeless people in 2019, their number is to be reduced by a quarter and the estimated number of 9,800 households in acute housing need is to fall to a maximum of 5,000 in 2018. The number of apartments for people in need, seniors, the disabled or members of the public benefit professions.
Opposition representative Ondřej Prokop (YES) said about the strategy that the goals regarding the total number of flats built annually and the number of city flats by 2030 seem to him to be unambitious. “In the newly published plan, I also lack any mention of how to finance the construction under consideration. I believe that without consideration of the economic aspects, the strategy cannot be considered complete,” he said. Hlaváček said today that the follow-up document dealing with financing should be completed by the end of this year.
According to an analysis by KPMG from 2018, after 1991, 194,000 flats became the property of Prague, and since then the city fund has fallen to less than a fifth of this number through privatizations. The shortage of flats and the rise in housing prices is one of the most discussed problems that the metropolis is currently solving.
Source: CTK
