The management of Prague has been continuing the privatization of stone apartments in panel houses for several years. It sells entire houses, so-called functional units, to tenants. Municipality spokesperson Vít Hofman he told today’s Hospodářské noviny (HN)., that Prague has so far sold 34 out of a total of 61 units, i.e. 1,812 apartments. The final earnings from privatization should bring roughly four billion crowns to the city coffers. The money goes to a special fund, which is intended for the construction of new apartments and for social purposes.

“We currently have two billion crowns in the fund. We are planning to build apartments for a family in Černý Most. It will be an investment of 500 million crowns. A home for the elderly with two hundred beds will be built in Prague 13 for 300 million crowns,” said health councilor Radek Lacko (ANO) at a meeting with journalists today.

At the end of privatization, there will be seven thousand apartments left in Prague, primarily for social purposes, where tenants pay roughly 40 percent of the market rent. “It emerged from the passportization of the housing stock that it is necessary to fill gaps in investments. In order to increase living comfort, we want to invest 300 to 400 million crowns in apartment repairs in the future,” said the councilor.

According to KPMG data, after 1991, 194,000 apartments came into ownership in Prague. As a result of privatization, in 2003 the city had 100,000 apartments left. As of May 31, 2016, according to KPMG, Prague owned a total of 35,000 city apartments, i.e. roughly 18 percent of the original fund, of which 26,000 apartments were entrusted to the administration of city districts and nine thousand apartments were managed by the municipality.