Prague will build new apartments

Prague City Hall is preparing to build new city-owned flats for the first time in more than 11 years. There will be five projects to expand accommodations for people who are unable to afford housing within their own means. The new construction and renovation of existing buildings owned by the city will be funded from the Fund of Affordable Housing in the Capital City of Prague.

“We are changing the course. Prague will build 1,100 flats in two to three years. This will be an increase of 16 percent to the 7,000 dwellings owned by the capital today. I am proud to have succeeded in pushing the course. For almost 11 years, Prague has not built a single flat and sold [some of] its housing stock,” Prague City Councilor Radek Lacko., responsible for health and housing, said on the City Hall website.

At the start of 2019, the construction of eight residential buildings with a total of 182 apartments is expected to begin in Černý Most at the eastern edge of the city. The building permit has already been issued.

Another nine residential buildings with one multifunctional building will be built starting at the beginning of 2019 in Dolní Počernice. A total of 310 residential units will be created and multifunctional premises will be designed for medical, cultural and commercial services.

The concept includes space for a general practitioner, gynecologist, dentist, pediatrician, a club for mothers with children, club rooms for adolescents and cafes. This project also has a valid building permit issued.

More flats are planned for Prague 13. They should mainly be 2 + kk and 3 + kk and according to the preliminary study, there should be around 160 flats. The ground floor of the building will have civic amenities.

Another 120 apartments are planned for in Hrdlořezy in Prague 9.

Opatov in Prague 11 is preparing to renovate district-owned high-rise housing with 342 apartments.

While new housing has been going up in the city since the end of the economic crisis, almost all of it is in the luxury sector or aimed at upper-middle-class clients.

Advocates for socially endangered people and families living on the margins of society have long complained of a lack of suitable housing for lower-income groups.

The rise in new flat prices, due to both a lack of new supply and speculative buying, has put much of the housing in Prague out of reach of lower-income people.

Developers want to build taller buildings to provide more flats, but this has run into opposition from people who say it will change the character of the city. Developers also complain that the bureaucratic process is too long and complicated, and that keeps a lot of smaller affordable projects from being built.