Is Housing in Czechia Really Unaffordable? A Regional Breakdown Beyond Prague

The “housing affordability crisis” is a frequent topic in Czech newspapers and political debates, but is housing truly unaffordable across the entire country?

We examined the cost of buying an apartment for a Prague resident versus a resident in the Karlovy Vary region, uncovering stark differences in housing access between Prague and other regions.

Prague’s Housing Crisis: Not Representative of All Czechia

Housing (un)affordability is typically evaluated by looking at the number of newly built apartments. However, new apartments from the past thirty years make up only about 10% of all housing stock in Czechia, most of which are in Prague.

Consequently, the high cost of housing in the capital skews the perception of nationwide affordability. In reality, housing supply hasn’t kept up with demand in Prague, leading to persistently high prices.

To gain a realistic picture of housing affordability across Czechia, it’s essential to consider smaller towns and regions outside of Prague, as well as older housing stock, which makes up the bulk of available homes.

The Cost of a Typical Apartment: Prague vs. Regions

For comparison, let’s consider a standard 70-square-meter apartment in an older building. Such apartments are common across Czechia in both panel and brick houses.

On average, a Czech worker would need about 8.1 years of gross annual salary to purchase this type of apartment. However, when broken down by region, housing affordability varies considerably. While average wages don’t fluctuate much from region to region, the difference in property prices is striking.

Housing Costs: Prague vs. Karlovy Vary Region

Prague remains the most expensive place to own a home. While the average salary in Prague is nearly 25% higher than the national average, the average price per square meter is nearly double.

For an older apartment, buyers can expect to pay around 120,000 CZK/m², bringing the total cost for a 70 m² apartment to nearly 8.4 million CZK. For someone earning the average Prague salary of 56,144 CZK, this equates to roughly 12.4 years of gross income.

In contrast, housing is significantly more affordable in the Karlovy Vary region, where the average gross wage is among the lowest in the country, at around 39,031 CZK. Here, a buyer would need only five years of income to purchase the same 70 m² apartment, priced at around 2.5 million CZK—less than a third of the cost of a similar apartment in Prague.

Affordable Housing in Ústí nad Labem and Other Regions

Even more affordable is the Ústí nad Labem Region, where older apartments currently have the lowest prices in the country. The average gross salary in Ústí nad Labem is around 42,801 CZK, roughly 7% below the national average. Despite this, property costs remain low, with prices averaging around 30,000 CZK per square meter. Here, an individual earning the regional average salary would need just 4.1 years of gross income to buy a 70 m² apartment.

Other regions, including South Bohemia, Plzeň, Zlín, and Vysočina, also offer relatively affordable housing. In these areas, a 70-square-meter older apartment typically costs under eight years’ worth of gross salary. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the South Moravian region—driven largely by high prices in Brno—stands as the second least affordable area after Prague, with a similar apartment requiring 10.1 years of gross income.

Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more