More than 315,000 people currently attend universities in the Czech Republic, of whom roughly 56,000 are international students. Yet facilities providing student accommodation offer just 68,000 beds. As a result, this specific segment of the property market is struggling with a severe shortage of capacity. And students are left worrying ahead of the start of every new semester.
A tough fight for every free bed
The number of students has risen only slightly in recent years, by 1% a year on the national average. The trend is driven above all by the capital city of Prague, where interest in studying is growing steadily. In Brno, by contrast, student numbers have fallen over the longer term – from around 75,000 in 2010 to roughly 63,000 in 2024.
The student housing market is developing across Europe, and it is slowly changing in the Czech Republic too
Analytical data from Cushman & Wakefield show that demand for student housing has long significantly exceeded supply. Last year, 165 facilities (halls of residence) were registered in the Czech Republic, with a total capacity of 67,863 beds. Of these, roughly 60,000 belong to the public sector, with the remaining 7,000 beds offered by private student housing operators. The largest number of beds, 28,000 in total, is available in Prague, where the dominant accommodation providers are Charles University (11,000 beds) and the Czech Technical University (7,500 beds). In Brno, students will find approximately 14,000 beds, while Olomouc offers 5,000. In Prague, then, 2.9 students compete for every bed, in Brno 3.1 and in Olomouc as many as 3.5! This is naturally reflected in the rising prices charged by the individual universities’ accommodation services.
Big differences in dormitory fees
Student housing prices vary widely by region and by type of provider. In Prague, the monthly rent in accommodation run by public institutions, usually the universities themselves, averages 6,030 Kč per bed. In the private sector, which includes operators such as CPI Hotels or Karlín Group & International Campus, the monthly payment per bed climbs to 12,710 Kč. The national average is 4,610 Kč in public and 8,790 Kč in private student accommodation.
In Olomouc, students pay an average of 3,700 Kč a month for a place in a university hall of residence. Those who opt for private accommodation should budget around 7,650 Kč
An opportunity for investors
Interest in student housing in Prague is growing thanks to the rising number of young people entering higher education. Another factor is the high international mobility of students and the popularity of Czech (and especially Prague) universities within the Erasmus+ exchange programme. But the supply of accommodation capacity is failing to keep pace with demand. The availability of student housing is therefore limited, and it is a considerable problem above all in larger university cities. Some of the properties on offer are also outdated and would need substantial investment in modernisation in the near future. This year, the media were filled with horror stories about how the halls of residence in Prague’s Strahov fail to meet even minimum hygiene standards and cannot successfully deal with an infestation of bedbugs. Private operators of student housing provide only about a tenth of all available beds in this country. Yet the capital is currently short of some 100,000 of them! The investment potential of building student residences is therefore considerable. In many European countries, the construction of modern halls of residence is already seen as a promising opportunity and is attracting a growing number of investors. In the Czech Republic, this demand is currently flowing mainly to retail investors and individual flat owners who rent to students – either the whole flat, or individual rooms separately. Such rentals are characterised by high flexibility (students usually look for contracts for one academic year with the option of extension), but this also brings a relatively high risk of increased tenant turnover, which reduces the overall average occupancy rate and increases the administrative burden as well as the frequency of repairs and maintenance. The reward can be a higher monthly rent than with a long-term contract with, say, a family or a senior tenant. Wondering whether students might be the right occupants for your investment flat? At FLAT SERVICE we have many years of experience in property management, which allows us to find the ideal tenant for every property. Write to sales@flatservice.cz or call +420 277 000 330 and leave all the worries of renting to us. You can also take advantage of our special Garant service, thanks to which you will receive your monthly rent under all circumstances – even during the summer holidays, when the flat happens to be empty.
