The Rental Housing Association, of which our company FLAT SERVICE is a member, teamed up with the Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic and the Reality iDnes portal to launch an initiative called Fair Listing around the turn of the year.
Data that doesn’t lie
“The goal is to bring transparency to today’s listing jungle in the rental housing sector. The main benefit for tenants is a far more fairly described rental offer, and for landlords it is prevention of future trouble,” says ANB president Jakub Vysocký. He compares the idea of the Fair Listing to the mandatory information on the full composition of food products, without which shopping in supermarkets would be unimaginable today. A study carried out by the Rental Housing Association on a sample of five hundred randomly selected listings on the largest property portals in the Czech Republic found that in more than a third of cases (34 % to be precise) it was impossible to find out at all how much a tenant would pay for services and energy, and how much the net rent would be.
If a listing shows a surprisingly low advance payment for energy, it may be an attempt to lure applicants into a trap that snaps shut with the first settlement of arrears
It is precisely the inability to break down the costs item by item, and perhaps the effort of some crafty landlords to conceal or gloss over this key information, that creates unnecessary tension in the housing market. First-time tenants often cannot picture the real costs, and for landlords it is highly undesirable to sign a contract with someone who will soon be unable to meet their obligations. Roughly a third of all listings examined in the study also failed to state the commission charged by the real estate agency or the so-called brokerage fee. As many as 70 % of listings contained no information on whether the energy contracts were to be transferred to the tenant.
An obligation to fill in everything
The initiative is the result of a joint effort by experts, representatives of the property portal, so-called export servers, and major players in institutional investment and rentals. The aim is to raise the level of transparency for housing seekers, who will now have enough information to make an informed decision about their future.
A listing that does not cover all the mandatory items cannot be labelled “fair”
Thanks to the Fair Listing, the time burden on real estate agents will also be reduced, as they will no longer have to answer the same questions from dozens of different applicants. Every listing that carries this virtual label must have information filled in across all mandatory categories. What are they?
- Type of contract (lease/sublease)
- Amount of rent
- Move-in date
- Layout and floor
- Usable floor area
- Furnishings
- Lift and barrier-free access
- Area of cellar/balcony/loggia/terrace/garden
- Address
- Building construction
- Condition of the building
- Energy
- Ownership (private/cooperative)
- Energy performance certificate (class and decree)
- Heating and water heating source
- Advance payments for services for 1 or 2 occupants
- Advance payments for each additional person
- Parking (type of space)
- Number of parking spaces
- Price for parking
- Amount of the commission/administrative brokerage fee/increased first rent payment, or information that the client pays none
The Fair Listing initiative currently works on a voluntary basis; on the iDnes property portal you can now conveniently filter all the listings that meet the conditions for being awarded the virtual label. Would you like help finding the ideal tenant for your investment flat? We are happy to support you – just get in touch with us on +420 277 000 330 or at sales@flatservice.cz. We will walk you through the concept of professional property management in detail and explain how we set up the whole process to the satisfaction of both parties.
