Mind the terminology: a unit is not a flat
Czech legislation does not define a specific minimum floor area required for a space to be approved for residential use. That matters for several reasons – only a genuine flat can be used to register permanent residence, and there are also major differences in the conditions for insurance or for obtaining a mortgage.
At the same time, the law does define certain partial parameters that affect the minimum size of a flat. These include the prescribed floor area of a habitable room, requirements for sanitary facilities, lighting and ventilation.
One long-standing controversial requirement is that the entrance from the corridor into a residential unit must not lead directly into a habitable room, but into a separate hallway. Neighbouring Poland, for instance, has already scrapped it, which has contributed to an accelerating pace of housing construction and lower prices for new flats. In practice, the lower limit for a studio flat in the Czech Republic that can be approved for residential use is therefore around 18 to 20 square metres of total floor area.
Straight from the front door into the living room? Illegal in the Czech Republic, completely standard elsewhere in Europe
If you see a “flat” on offer that is described throughout the marketing materials as a “unit”, “apartment”, “studio space” and the like, you can be almost one hundred percent certain that it is not actually a flat. That of course doesn't mean you can't live in it, but you need to think ahead about certain drawbacks that come with it.
Sometimes it is only a few units in an entire project whose parameters fall short of the legislative requirements for a flat. In other cases, entire buildings are approved as “apartment-type housing”, in other words de facto hotels. Unfortunately, this often happens in areas that are unsuitable for residential development due to a lack of local amenities.
Micro-flats for sale and for rent
It is clear from the above that when we talk about micro-flats, in the vast majority of cases these are not flats at all. That doesn't mean, however, that there is no demand for units with a floor area typically around ten square metres. Quite often they remain in the developers' ownership, head to the rental market and serve as steady cash flow for the companies that built or renovated them.
Living in just a few square metres used to be associated mainly with Asian countries; the trend gradually spread to Western Europe and is now gaining ground here too
Recently, however, there has been a growing number of cases where micro-flats also end up in genuine retail sales. In that process they can of course likewise end up in the portfolios of institutional investors, which is estimated to happen in about half of all cases.
An acceptable compromise for everyone
Demand is growing above all for properties that, despite the lack of space, fit in everything people need for daily life. Very creative micro-flat solutions often build on greater verticality – sleeping on a mezzanine level effectively increases the amount of usable space.
A washing machine and dryer are among the appliances that won't fit into most micro-flats
The opposite approach is taken by projects with, for example, shared toilets in the corridor or shared services. This might be a communal laundry room, since a washing machine takes up a great deal of space in a micro-flat. Today, however, such buildings mainly provide a temporary home for people coming to the Czech Republic from Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia.
Families no longer drive demand
But be careful – Czechs are of course interested in micro-flats too. To a large extent they represent a logical response to the fundamental demographic changes taking place around the world, including in the Czech Republic, in recent years. The number of single-person households is growing significantly, and micro-flats are often an excellent choice for them. Residential developers therefore have to respond to the “singles generation” as well.
The share of women who have no children and do not plan to have any is also considerably higher. While in pre-1989 generations it was around 5 %, in other words every twentieth woman, current figures point to 20 to 25 %, roughly every fourth to fifth woman of working age. And the trend will deepen further – surveys across Generation Z and Generation Alpha suggest that up to half of respondents are deliberately not planning to have children.
A large family looking for a 4+kk or bigger home is something of a Mrs Columbo in the Czech Republic these days
The structure of demand is therefore gradually changing. For decades it was driven mainly by young families with two or even more children who needed larger 3+kk or 4+kk flats for a comfortable life. Today, flats like that are extremely rare in new development projects. Partly because few people need them, and partly because few people can afford them. The question for economists, sociologists and demographers remains whether and in which direction these two phenomena accelerate one another.
Are you planning to rent out an investment flat, or even a larger number of properties in your portfolio? We would be glad to be your reliable and stable partner, taking care of professional management of all your flats, selecting trustworthy tenants and handling all the paperwork. We will promptly prepare a non-binding calculation of your expected guaranteed rent – just call us on +420 277 000 330 or email sales@flatservice.cz.
