Study: Prague Needs Apartments for 1.55 Million Inhabitants

Prague - Prague needs apartments for 1.55 million residents who actually live in the metropolis. This is about 250,000 people more than what the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) reports. This comes from an analysis by CE-Traffic published by the Prague City Hall. According to the mayor's deputy for urban planning, Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09), the city must focus on the development of extensive brownfields that have been unused for years.

"Cities are no longer centers of industry, but primarily of commerce and services, and conditions for living are improving in all respects. The current figures show that the demand for living in Prague is even greater than we perceived, and in the future, we must be able to continuously work with such information," Hlaváček stated in a press release for ČTK today.

According to the analysis, which is based on anonymized data from mobile operators, there is a long-term population of around 1.55 million people who can be considered residents. Of this number, about 200,000 are those who have lived in Prague for an extended period but were outside Prague on the monitored days, for example, on business trips. Furthermore, the study states that approximately 200,000 to 250,000 people temporarily reside in Prague, even though they do not have a permanent residence here. The data was monitored in February, October, and December 2018, and the situation was similar in all these months.

Since mid-2015, the prices of new apartments in Prague have risen by about 90 percent. "It is clear that the situation where home ownership is unaffordable for most Prague residents is no longer sustainable. The answer to meeting the needs of residents is not to expand the city beyond its borders but to create conditions for a quality life within the city," added Hlaváček.

The analysis further shows that every weekday, 300,000 to 400,000 people come to Prague and leave again in the evening. This group consists of those commuting to Prague for work, study, meetings, or medical appointments. "If we add tourists to this group, the data indicate that at any given moment on a weekday, there are approximately 1.75 million people in the territory of Prague," the study states.

According to Ondřej Špaček from CE-Traffic, the number of people moving across the borders of Prague daily is extreme. Moreover, no circumstances suggest that this trend will change. "Projections generally counted on about 1.4 million residents by 2030. However, there are already 150,000 more people actually residing in Prague," Špaček said.

The result of the situation, where a significant portion of residents in Prague only works but lives outside the capital, is increased construction and support for housing in neighboring regions. "The drop in construction in Prague is being compensated by the regional housing market, which brings numerous negative consequences, primarily an increase in unsustainable modes of transportation," said architect Lukáš Kohl.

As a result, properties in the districts of Prague-East and Prague-West have significantly increased in price. The average price of family houses has risen by millions, as have rents across the entire catchment area, especially in locations with good transport connections to Prague.