Brno cooperative housing: eight years of waiting and a price dispute

A dispute has erupted in Brno over the city’s cooperative housing programme: participants have been waiting eight years for flats at Kamenný vrch, and the expected price per square metre has risen from 60,000–70,000 crowns to about 108,900 crowns. According to a recording of a meeting, Vítková, deputy chair of the Kamenný vrch II cooperative, spoke sharply about the work of the former deputy mayor, who disagrees.

Sharp words at the meeting

“Because I’m the only one fighting for you in this city. There’s no one else here,” Vítková said at an information session on Aug. 30 that dealt with flat prices and contract terms. She then used a vulgar expression about how the then deputy mayor, Podivinská Karasová, treated people hoping to get a home, according to the audio. Karasová was a member of the ANO movement until the end of 2025 and chaired the cooperative at the time of the meeting.

Asked by journalists, Vítková neither explicitly confirmed nor denied her words. She said that if informal expressions came up in an emotional debate, when she was doing her utmost to defend the interests of future cooperative members, they should be seen in the context of that discussion, and that they do not reflect her actual cooperation with Karasová.

The former deputy mayor rejects this: “I find it inappropriate. I don’t know why she said that. I can’t agree with it. It isn’t true. I did the maximum that was possible.”

What was done before the change of power

Karasová points out that during her time in office she pushed through key steps without which the project could not have reached construction: she prepared the cooperative’s statutes, secured a financing bank and set the conditions for choosing the builder. City bodies had to approve these steps, which the public resolutions of the Brno council also confirm. “A huge amount of work was done on this over four years,” she added. She left the city leadership after the municipal elections.

Why the price has risen so much

The cooperative housing programme was launched in 2018 by the then deputy mayor, Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL). The first applicants were counting on prices of about 60,000–70,000 crowns per square metre. Preparation dragged on, and the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis significantly raised construction costs. Building at Kamenný vrch began only this year, and over eight years hundreds of applicants have left the programme, according to earlier findings by the outlet.

According to Karasová, the original prices matched construction costs at the time. The expected price is now about 108,900 crowns per square metre, and cooperative members will learn the final figure only shortly before the building is finished. The project provides for 353 flats, 280 of them cooperative.

A dispute over the terms

Some applicants also criticise the 15-year ban on transferring cooperative shares and want it shortened. Karasová objects that city cooperative housing is meant to be long-term housing for young families, not a vehicle for speculative resales.

At the August meeting, Vítková advised applicants to wait on changes until after the municipal elections. She later explained that she considered more substantial changes to the rules realistic only in the new political term. By her latest information, about 70 percent of the cooperative flats are covered by contracts. Despite repeated questions, she did not give the exact number of signed contracts or of withdrawals this year.

Around Prague guide on the topic: Flats in Prague over 10 years: prices up 2.5 times, but only on paper

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz