The number of apartments available in Prague is up 98% – these districts have the most rentals now

More flats are available for long-term rental on the Prague market, and rents are dropping due to the effects of coronavirus, which has limited tourists who would have used short-term rentals.

The number of available flats for long-term rental in Prague at the end of the second quarter of 2020 increased by 97.7 percent year-on-year to 14,738, compared to 7,453 in Q2 2019. This is the most flats available in the last four years. Compared to the previous quarter of 2020, which had 12.371 flats available, the increase was 20%.

The largest number of available apartments in Prague are in Prague 5 and Prague 2. At the end of June, there were 2,370 available flats in Prague 5 and more than 2,100 flats in Prague 2. Around 1,900 flats are offered in Prague 4 and more than 1,700 in Prague 1. On the other hand, the lowest number of flats is in Prague 7, where there are only about 550 flats, according to figures from Trigema.

“The situation on the new housing market is basically stable. However, we are seeing more significant changes in the metropolis in the rental housing market, where supply has doubled year-on-year —mostly at the expense of apartments that were originally intended for short-term rental. The growing supply of rental apartments also affects their prices. These have been gradually declining since the end of last year,” Trigema board chairman Marcel Soural said.

“With regard to the frozen tourism industry in Prague, some homeowners who had apartments for short-term rentals decided to provide them for long-term rent. However, it can be expected that at least some of these landlords will return to short-term rental of their properties over time. Revenues from that tend to be higher than in the case of long-term leases,” Soural added.

The average price of rent, without fees, fell by 2.4% year on year to 319 CZK per square meter per month, according to data from development company Trigema.

Most available apartments are two-room. Their share was more than 40% at the end of June. One-room and three-room flats accounted for about 25%. This was followed by four-room flats with a share of 7.5%. The average area of a rented apartment is now less than 69 square meters.