Czech residential price inflation slows to a crawl in Q2

by   CIJ iDesk I
2019-08-16   12:00
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Rising residential prices has become an issue of such concern to the Czech public that news about the trend almost always makes the front page. It's no different now, but what's unusual is that the pace of home price inflation dropped in the second quarter of the year to 1.7 percent (compared to Q1 2019). That's its lowest point in four years. In three regions, (Karlovy Vary, Olomouc and Moravia Silesia) prices stagnated, while the highest rate of inflation was in South Bohemia. It still meant that prices were 8.2 percent higher than they were in Q2 2018. A common benchmark for the Czech market is to measure how far prices have risen since the crisis using an index. Taking prices as of January 1, 2010 as 100 points, the residential price index is now 144.5 points. The numbers come from a press release put out by Hypoteční banka, a Czech mortgage lender. Its director of real estate Petr Němeček said "The biggest rise in demand was for 3-bedroom flats. Supply and demand are gradually moving beyond the borders of Prague. The structure of the flats on offer is also changing in favor of the cheaper projects in the peripheral part of Prague, which is reducing the average price levels for new construction."