Russians buying up Czech apartments: a hybrid war over housing

Thousands of investment apartments in Czechia are being bought but never lived in, and this is driving up housing prices. That was the claim made this week in the Chamber of Deputies by Jiří Mazánek, head of the anti-mafia unit, who described the buying-up of property by Russians as a new tool of hybrid warfare.

“We see thousands of investment apartments that are bought but not occupied. The result is obvious: property prices are rising, and with them the pressure on young people who will have nowhere to live,” Mazánek warned. In his words, the goal is clear: to create tension in society and undermine the country’s internal security.

According to the unit, companies owned or managed by Russian citizens play a notable role on the market, and they have been watched for a long time. A scheme used to be common: foreigners, above all Russians, obtained a residence permit by taking part in Czech firms whose main asset was real estate. Mazánek said a similar trend is seen not only in Czechia: he discussed it with the ambassadors of several Nordic countries, who sense the same thing.

Toxic money. The director said the funds for such purchases often come from criminal activity. “Expensive money from mortgages competes on the market with this cheap toxic money of foreign origin,” he explained. Buying flats and houses has long been considered by detectives a popular way to launder dirty money: property is well suited to safely storing and growing capital, and rental income can mask the origin of the investment.

Estimates from before the coronavirus pandemic showed that Russians dominated among foreign buyers of investment property in Prague. That did not change after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 either. Although the role of investors from Ukraine and some Asian countries has grown since 2022, the Russian diaspora and the structures it controls remain numerous in Czechia, Mazánek confirmed. Russian capital, he said, has also kept most of the assets it acquired earlier and continues to own them.

Read also: Mortgages in Czechia for foreigners: who can get one and how much of your own money you need

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz