Real estate in Czechia: renting, buying and mortgages for foreigners

Listings from the agencies we work with directly: flats, houses and commercial space to rent or buy. Filter by price, type and district.

Renting directly from the owner in Prague is realistic, and it saves you a full month's rent plus VAT. But along with the commission you also lose the intermediary who normally checks the paperwork for you. Here is the running order: how to make sure the person in front of you really is the owner, how much cash you need up front, and which clauses of the contract to read slowly.

You have rented a flat, hauled in the suitcases — and then it turns out the landlord “won’t register you, because afterwards you can never be evicted”. Here is what the law actually requires of you, which piece of paper you need from your landlord, and which of his fears are justified and which are not.

Foreigners do get mortgages in the Czech Republic — the only questions are how much of your own money you have to put on the table and what the bank sees in your tax return. Here is the whole thing in order: the regulator's limits, why the terms are tougher without permanent residence, how income is assessed on a ŽL versus an HPP, where the gap between the advertised rate and the real one comes from, and the full list of costs on top of the price of the flat.

Foreigners can buy property in the Czech Republic without any permits — the restriction in the Foreign Exchange Act was repealed back in 2011. But the price in the listing is never the amount you actually spend. Here is what the katastr, a lawyer, escrow and an agency cost, how the deal runs from reservation to keys, which taxes you pay every year, and why a purchased apartment does nothing for your residence permit.

In Czechia the estate agent's fee on a rental is usually paid not by the owner but by the person moving in. The going rate is one month's rent plus 21% VAT — on a flat renting for 29 580 Kč that is almost 36 thousand korunas on top of the deposit and the first month. Here is what that money actually buys, when it is worth paying, where the law draws the line, and how to work out your full move-in cost — with the commission and without it.

In the Czech Republic, one flat comes with two completely different insurance products: one protects the walls, the other protects your belongings and your liability towards the neighbours. Here is what a tenant should buy, what an owner should have, what the bank requires with a mortgage, and what vinkulace actually means.

A breakdown from primary sources: statistical office indices, the cadastre, central bank reports and Deloitte. What a square metre actually costs, why published figures differ by 40 percent, and how much of the growth survives inflation.

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