"A 30-year mortgage scares me. I'll never buy a home anyway." Three young Prague residents describe how they learned to live in rented accommodation
Property prices and rents in the Czech Republic have been rising significantly in recent years and affordable housing is becoming one of the most pressing social challenges. According to an OECD study , house prices will increase by more than 30 per cent between 2008 and 2024, slightly above the average of the OECD member states. Rents have almost doubled over the same period.
Deloitte data shows that at the end of last year, the average price of an apartment was CZK 110,100 per square metre and the rent was CZK 309 per metre per month - in the first quarter of this year it was already CZK 316. The lack of affordable housing is thus increasingly affecting young families, the elderly and vulnerable groups. The situation is exacerbated not only by high demand and the low quality of the housing stock, but also by the fact that roughly 16% of flats in the Czech Republic remain unoccupied. The situation is traditionally worst in Prague.
For the generation of young people living in the capital, the idea of owning an apartment is becoming more of a dream than a plan. Yet they have found ways to live in the expensive city - and often happily.
"I learned to travel light, even in life."
Lucie, 27, graphic designer
Lucie came to Prague five years ago. She works in a small graphic agency and earns about 32,000 net. Currently, she lives in a four-room apartment in Žižkov, where she shares her home with two strangers.
"The first year I was convinced that I would save up and eventually go into my own place. But then I saw the prices of apartments rising faster than my salary, and the illusion vanished," she says. Today, she no longer even tries to find a long-term rental for herself. "I couldn't find a one-person apartment in a reasonable location for under 20,000 right now."
But Lucie has learned to see housing differently. "I think of a room as a place for me to sleep. I spend a lot of time outside, in cafes or coworking spaces. I only bring the essentials to my apartment so I can easily move if something changes. I feel a sense of freedom," she says. Still, she admits that there are downsides to shared living - whether it's conflicts over cleaning, unexpected visits from roommates, or little privacy.
"If I could, I'd want a small apartment to myself where I can play music and paint in peace. But I no longer see it as a failure that I don't have that now. Most people in my neighborhood have it anyway," she says.
"Coliving is my compromise."
David, 30, UX designer
David works in IT and earns above average. Yet he says he could only achieve a mortgage with a major lifestyle restriction. "The idea of going into debt for 30 years scares me. Plus, interest rates are so high now that I would have almost nothing left for entertainment," he says.
So he decided to coliving in Karlín. He pays 21,000 a month, but the price includes not only a fully equipped room, but also a shared office and a gym. "I like having people around me - we cook together in the evenings, play board games. It's not anonymous living like in a block of flats."
David admits that sometimes he feels like he's always in the dorms. "I'm 30 years old and I'm still living in something that's not mine. My parents already had a house at my age. But when I look at it rationally, I know this is the most comfortable option. I can move if I want to and I don't have to worry about whether the landlord will raise my rent."
"Shared accommodation has taught me to be more tolerant"
Eliška, 24, medical student
Eliška came to Prague from a smaller town. She rents a room in a three-room apartment in Smichov with three other female students. Each pays around CZK 9,000. "I can barely make it on my part-time jobs and my parents' support, but I don't want to live further away from the centre. It would take me an hour to get to school," she says.
Sharing an apartment was stressful for her at first - she had to learn to adapt to others. "At the beginning we fought about noise and cleaning. Today we have a schedule and it works. I've found that it's helped me learn to communicate and compromise, which will help me in life."
Eliška realises that she probably won't be able to afford her own place after school. "My future salary as a doctor will allow me to get a mortgage, but not in Prague if I want to live a normal life. Maybe one day I will move to a smaller city. But right now I don't want to leave Prague - I have school, friends and opportunities here."
The generation of renters is thus becoming a new reality, not just a temporary phenomenon. Young people are getting used to shared households, flexible contracts and more frequent moves - and learning to make a lifestyle out of it. But it poses a challenge for the city: if it wants to retain young residents and their talents, it will have to find ways to offer them not just expensive developer apartments, but affordable alternatives. Otherwise, Prague may become a city where only those who have already inherited housing can live well.
