Prague will build the first cooperative housing. It will be in Radlická Street
Now he starts looking for a partner who will start a housing association and build a house. This is what Prague representatives are talking about today. The aim of the project support is to improve housing. Prague has long struggled with a shortage of flats and their high prices. In the future, the city also wants to launch another period of projects.
“This is the first ready-made pilot project of affordable housing. Together with the Prague Development Company (PDS), we have selected plots of land and the most prepared one is in Radlická. We have a step ahead of competing for a partner who will set up a team with us. The goal is to get affordable housing because the situation is alarming. It is not a single project, but the first one, “said councilor Hana Kordová Marvanová (for STAN).
Marvanová also said that Prague is the worst in terms of housing availability in Europe and that 17 gross monthly wages are needed to buy an apartment. According to her, Prague cannot replace the work of the state, but it can contribute in the above-mentioned way by providing city land and, in addition, obtaining flats in houses for the necessary professions, such as teachers, nurses or teachers.
The house in Radlická should have a gross floor area of 20,000 square meters and will consist of at least two blocks with separate entrances. Inside, there will be 221 to 266 apartments and their average area should range from 54 to 65 square meters. I also count on civic amenities. He estimates the costs at CZK 950 million. Given the deposit of 25 percent of the price of apartments in the city at the beginning of the cooperative will invest tens of millions.
The cooperatives will have to pay a quarter of the price of the apartment immediately, and will repay the rest as a share of the loan that the cooperative will take out with the bank for the construction. Applicants for membership will have to have a permanent residence in Prague and will not be able to own other housing. In addition to repaying the loan, the cooperative will also send money to the municipal fund for the development of affordable housing, thus repaying a kind of advance payment for the future purchase of land.
The plan for the support of affordable cooperative housing was approved by the Prague City Council in December 2020. The entire project is intended to support people who do not reach for supported urban rental housing, but are also unable to obtain or pay a mortgage. At the same time, a third of the flats will go to a city that is suitable for rental housing.
Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (TOP 09) said that unfortunately cooperative housing projects cannot become massive construction. The reason is that the city owns little land. According to him, this has a number of reasons, including, for example, the sale of land by the city in recent decades or poor cooperation with the state, when state companies such as Czech Railways and the like sold land to private investors, not the city.