The proposal, submitted last year by MPs rather than the government, should significantly simplify the building permit process in the Czech Republic and ultimately help to ease the housing crisis. The most fundamental changes await those building their own family house, who have until now had to deal with a whole range of administrative obligations. However, the proposal is also welcomed by large developers, who say it will make the permitting of buildings work better and, above all, more predictable.
We have already published a separate article on the substance of the amendment on the FLAT SERVICE blog, entitled “Will a single stamp be enough to build in the Czech Republic from 2027?” – and it is precisely the unification of the application process that is the hallmark of the newly approved law. It introduces the key principle of one stamp, one authority, one year.
For individual builders, the whole process should become simpler and faster
When does the Building Act change?
The deadlines also matter, marking the start of the notional overhaul of the institutions responsible for approving individual buildings. The law should take effect as early as 1 January 2027, though the whole of 2027 is expected to serve as a kind of transition period. Building authorities as such should already be deciding under the new rules, yet the single centralised authority under whose banner everything will gradually be unified will not be fully operational just yet.
This will be a newly created institution called the Office for Territorial Development, together with its regional branches. Opposition MPs criticised the proposal precisely on the grounds that it is not at all clear how the current employees of a total of 638 building authorities across the Czech Republic (so far falling under municipal and city authorities) will become part of the structure of the new institution. Its leadership will be appointed and dismissed directly by the government.
The law has repeatedly been criticised, and not only by the opposition, for playing into the hands of larger developers
Construction as a matter of public interest
One of the seemingly inconspicuous provisions, yet one of the key clauses of the law for the years ahead, states that the construction of public infrastructure (linear structures, for example) and of designated buildings (including residential ones) is in the public interest. That matters in terms of how it ties in with other legislation, for instance on the purchase and expropriation of land.
The new rules will therefore apply to a building or set of buildings predominantly used for housing with a total floor area of 10,000 square metres or more. The proposal thus slightly favours large developers, for whom the permitting process will be somewhat simpler than in the case of small residential projects.
The law will also significantly change the permitting of linear structures such as railways, motorways and the metro
The Senate to discuss the Building Act amendment
The bill, whose declared aim is to “create conditions for housing, work and people’s lives”, is now heading to the Senate, which, given its composition (opposition senators are in the majority), could still delay the whole matter quite considerably.
A whole range of the proposed changes will certainly be debated again there; some of them are almost indisputably for the better (for example, the option of obtaining final building approval directly from an authorised inspector), while others stir up strong emotions (such as the weakening of the position of citizens and neighbours in the permitting of selected buildings).
It will be interesting to watch whether the amendment is approved in time, and what consequences it will have for the entire construction sector and the real estate market in the Czech Republic in the coming years.
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