Prague: The future in the stars. What are the capital’s biggest problems?
photo: ČTK / Částka Jiří
Prague is one of the few cities where a new “government” was not formed even six weeks after the elections. Voters dealt cards to three blocs of approximately equal size (TOGETHER, Pirates and Prague itself, ANO and SPD), among which the STAN movement, weakened by the Dosimeter affair, oscillates. Meanwhile, serious problems are accumulating in the capital – especially over the last eight years – the solution cannot bear any further delay.
The capital city needs a stable leadership that would finally shake up the stagnation started by the era of Mayor Adriana Krnáčová. Prague manages a budget of 90 billion crowns at the level of a larger ministry. Nevertheless, it is moving more and more into the position of a tourist open-air museum, while other large domestic cities are experiencing a modernization boom.
Slow construction
What bothers the residents of Prague the most? According to an Ipsos survey from this September, the biggest problems are the lack of apartments and high housing prices (53 percent) and transportation and parking (36 percent). Far behind them were security (four percent), the state of education (three percent) and climate change (two percent), which probably won’t please green activists, who put this topic above all others.
Among the main reasons for the unhappy housing situation are slow permitting processes, which in the case of a new apartment building often take ten or more years. The Czechia ranks 156th in the world behind Papua New Guinea in the length of construction proceedings. In Prague, it is the slowest of the surrounding metropolises, even though changes to the spatial plan have accelerated.
Warsaw or Vienna allow two and a half to three times more apartments per thousand apartments than Prague, which is reflected in their better availability. Prague needs to build 10,000 to 15,000 flats per year, while in the last decade there have been an average of 3,500.
The lack of apartments is also reflected in their prices, which have increased by 146 percent since 2015. A Prague citizen earns 17 years on an average new apartment, not including other expenses. In Berlin, Vienna or Warsaw, they will reach it in about nine years.
Condensing or expanding?
The general consensus is that the only effective solution to the housing crisis is the massive construction of new apartments of various forms, including rental and cooperative housing. To do this, it is necessary to speed up and simplify permitting – which would also reduce apartment prices – and allocate enough areas for new construction. Is there enough space for you in Prague?
This article is part of PREMIUM+
Unlock exclusive content and ad-free videos on 9 sites.
I already have a subscription.
Log in