Over forty percent of Czechs are planning to renovate an apartment or house this year. Despite rising prices, almost a quarter of people are considering buying their own property, while less than half of those contacted are currently satisfied with their housing. According to agency Ipsos survey for Broker Consulting among more than 1,000 respondents.
According to them, 41 percent of people intend to embark on the reconstruction of the house or apartment this year. “Reconstruction is an alternative when I can’t think of people buying my own property,” said Martinová Popenková from Ipsos. “Reconstructions are dragging the market for the second year in a row. Banks expect higher interest in construction and renovations bringing housing with more energy-efficient operation,” said Vlastimil Nigrin, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Hypoteční banka.
According to a survey, 24 percent of Czechs are considering a new family house or apartment, or recreational real estate. These are mainly young people under the age of 33. While more than half of those surveyed (57 percent) want to finance with savings, almost half (49 percent) plan to use a mortgage in combination with their own resources to buy real estate, and 23 percent plan to rely on their own money.
The most common interest is in real estate up to five million crowns, on which people plan to take out a mortgage up to four million crowns, and 83 percent of them calculate that the installments will not exceed 20,000 crowns per month. The survey states that more than a third of potential mortgage applicants (37 percent) for real estate or renovations would now not qualify.
“Mortgage limits are unpleasant from the point of view of those interested. On the other hand, at a time when the repayments of existing mortgages are rising sharply during refixing, we can imagine how many households would get into fatal difficulties if the CNB did not apply any limits in the past,” said Michal Skořepa, an economist at Česká spořitelna.
According to the survey, 48 percent of the population is satisfied with housing. People perceive satisfaction more emotionally than materially. “Most often they describe it as a pleasant location, where they like to return and where there are good family and neighborly relations,” the survey said. Satisfied living takes the form of one’s own home, in the village (38 percent), in the city (22 percent) or in solitude (13 percent).
The Czechs see the cause of the complicated situation on the housing market mainly in rising real estate prices (54 percent of them), building materials and works (50 percent), and rising mortgage prices (30 percent). Twenty-four percent of respondents perceive the current housing situation as a result of the war in Ukraine. These are mostly the age group over 42 and people with an apprenticeship certificate.
According to Helena Horská, a member of the National Economic Council of the Government (NERV), there is an insufficient supply of flats behind the rising real estate price. “According to my estimates, the market already lacks over 100,000 housing units due to insufficient construction and a lack of alternatives to owner-occupied housing, from cooperative to municipal flats,” added Horská, Raiffeisenbank’s chief economist.
Source: Ipsos and CTK
