Prague is preparing a major expansion of its municipal housing stock, with plans for up to 8,000 new city-owned apartments over the coming years.

While construction remains limited today, the city says dozens of projects are moving through the planning process as it seeks to increase the supply of affordable rental housing.

The programme is being coordinated by the Prague Development Company (PDS), a city-owned organisation established in 2020 to prepare residential developments on municipal land.

According to its latest annual report, PDS has been entrusted with around 90 hectares of land, where more than two dozen projects are planned.

The apartments are intended primarily for people who struggle to find affordable housing, including seniors, people with disabilities, single parents and workers in key public services such as healthcare, education, the police and the fire brigade.

Despite these ambitions, only a small number of municipal apartments are currently being built. Data from Prague’s Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) shows that since 2019, around 50 to 60 municipal apartments have been completed each year, almost all of them developed by individual city districts.

Among the latest projects are a building with 29 municipal apartments in Modřany, developed by Prague 12, and another with 50 apartments in Kolovraty. Over the past decade, the municipality itself has launched only one residential project: two apartment buildings with 28 units in Černý Most, which are expected to be completed soon.

Several larger developments are now progressing through the permitting process. PDS is preparing projects in Černý Most, Dolní and Horní Počernice, Jinonice, Vršovice and Nové Dvory, near the future Metro D line.

Last year, the company also submitted permit applications for developments in Jalový Dvůr, Peroutkova, Nový Zlíchov, V Botanice, Zenklova Street and the first phase of construction in Dolní Počernice. Work on the Peroutkova and Jalový Dvůr projects is expected to begin this year.

According to the latest IPR analysis, Prague currently owns about 29,800 municipal apartments. Around 22,600 are managed by individual city districts, while the municipality directly administers about 7,200.

Following large-scale privatisation after 1991, Prague’s housing stock fell from around 194,000 apartments to roughly 31,000 today.

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