Five years have flown by and “PDS” is reporting its first tangible results. Over the course of the next decade, roughly 8,000 flats should be built, earmarked exclusively for rental housing.
The new flats should be offered first to representatives of so-called preferred professions, which include, for example, teachers, firefighters and police officers. At the same time, it will be a way to secure a home for socially disadvantaged groups, such as single parents who, on a single income, cannot afford to cover both the full running of a household and market rent.
PDS projects can be found all over Prague
According to official materials, there are a hard-to-believe sixty development projects in the pipeline. However, PDS counts individual construction phases as separate projects, so the real number is somewhat lower.
A total of 14 projects are currently at an advanced stage of preparation, spread almost evenly across the entire territory of the capital. For context, it is worth mentioning that 8,000 flats corresponds to roughly one full year of commercial residential construction in Prague led by private developers.
The sites for municipal housing surround the historic core of the capital
Where exactly does Pražská developerská společnost plan to build? New flats are planned in Nové Dvory, Palmovka, Zlíchov, Beranka, Černý Most, Jinonice, Vršovice, Třeboradice, as well as on Peroutkova street and near the Libeň port. You can find the complete overview at this address.
The new Dolní Počernice
By far the largest area Prague plans to develop is a contiguous plot of more than 18 hectares in Dolní Počernice. It should be home to more than 800 rental units as well as the necessary infrastructure in the form of shops, service premises, a primary school and a nursery. Applications for both a zoning decision and a building permit have now been filed. Construction will be carried out in phases between 2026 and 2034.
Czechia may not be a typical land of geysers, yet the energy of the Earth's core can still be used effectively
The neighbourhood in Dolní Počernice should be completely energy self-sufficient, including a solar power plant as well as a geothermal one, which is unusual in our part of the world. The project is conceived as a set of low-rise apartment buildings with a maximum of three residential floors, which, given the current housing situation in the capital, is a somewhat controversial decision. It does fit in with the overall character of the location, but at the same time it does not contribute to solving the housing crisis as much as it could.
Inspiration from Poland
A special case is a smaller project of roughly 80–100 flats, which PDS would like to build in cooperation with a selected commercial developer – similarly to motorways built under the PPP scheme. Cooperation with the private sector on municipal housing construction has proved successful in Warsaw, for example. We wrote about how neighbouring Poland is dealing with unaffordable housing in a separate article on the FLAT SERVICE blog.
It will be interesting to watch how the market reacts to the construction of municipal flats and the potential expansion of supply. Given the lengthy permitting processes and the demands of construction, however, it may well turn out that municipal flats will ultimately be no more than a drop in the ocean.
Do you have a flat in your portfolio that you are planning to rent out? We will gladly save you all the hassle of paperwork and finding a reliable tenant. Call +420 277 000 330 or write to info@flatservice.cz and you will learn everything you need to know.
