David Bureš: Prague property market no longer forgives mistakes

The founder and CEO of FLET, David Bureš, argues that the era when it was enough to buy a flat in Prague and simply rent it out is over. The property market has changed so much that without a precise analytical approach, investors risk earning significantly less than they could.

According to Bureš, as recently as ten years ago rapid growth in housing prices could make up even for management mistakes and low rental yields. Today the situation is different: “you need to set the right mortgage interest rate, the right rent, and keep the flat in the right condition”, the entrepreneur explains on the Forbes BrandVoice podcast.

Bureš draws on 26 years of experience in the property market. Last year he strategically and substantially merged his previous company Bureš & partneři with Penta Real Estate, giving rise to a new brand — FLET. The company specializes in sourcing, financing and managing investment properties in Prague.

The FLET team analyzes properties against more than thirty parameters, selecting the best flats in Prague, handles the paperwork and, if needed, arranges renovations. The company then rents the properties from the new owners itself and finds tenants for them — leaving the owner to simply track their portfolio's condition, current asset value and yield online.

“Many investors don't need to buy new property at all to increase their profits. It's far more profitable to optimize the portfolio they already have,” Bureš stresses.

That view is echoed by one of FLET's longtime clients, David Nevešelý, a partner at the well-known Prague law firm Havel & Partners and a property investor himself. According to him, the main problem for many owners is emotional attachment to their flats. “As soon as you get rid of those emotions, it becomes clear whether your portfolio is earning less than it could with a simple reallocation of assets,” Nevešelý says.

He also admits that handing over property management to specialists turned out to be a profitable decision for him: “An hour of my time spent on my main profession ultimately brings in far more than running around to properties.”