Prague can be a billion-dollar developer of city apartments
The pirates, who own the mayoral seat, want to start investing significantly in urban construction in the next election period. “We estimate that in the second half of the next election period, it will be more than a billion crowns a year. At the same time, we want the city to free up a part of the city land for cooperative and association construction, which will not be financed by future users, but the councilor for housing and transparency Adam Zábranský said on behalf of the Pirates.
If it is not possible to find enough money in the city budget for the construction of apartments, the Pirates want to secure them through loans from the European Investment Bank, with which they are negotiating cooperation. A billion crowns per year, according to the working version of the program published on the Pirate Party Forum, was supposed to cover the costs of five hundred new apartments.
The construction should expand the city’s housing stock, which according to the latest census by the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) has 30,345 apartments. This is only 4.5 percent of apartments in the metropolis. For comparison: Berlin owns almost eighteen percent of the two million apartments. Vienna even owns a thousand quarters of 930 apartments, and it also has the same number of cooperative apartments.
The ANO movement, on the other hand, does not rush into the construction of new apartments on its own. According to party leader Patrik Nacher, it would be more appropriate to bet on cooperation with private investors. “I believe that the city and its organization are not effective developers. However, Prague still has an interesting location intended for the construction of apartments, which, under specific conditions, could be used by developers through a competition. They could pay part of their production for part of the land and cooperation on projects,” says Nacher.
Cooperation with funds and private investors would not only bring valuable experience with projects, but would also solve the issue of financing. “Funds and investors would bring in ‘long money’ and the city’s cash-flow would not be burdened. There is also cooperation with banks that are looking for opportunities in the residential segment, and the city is a safe creditor for them,” explains the leader of ANO.
However, ANO does not completely give up the ambition of its own construction. But he wants to use it only for a selected segment of buildings. “For example, social housing must be built. We want to take out loans for them, which are the best possible way with regard to the investment plan and its return,” adds Nacher.
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