“The Risks of Buying Discount Real Estate in the Czech Republic: Co-Ownership Traps and Consignment Goods”

Discounts of up to a quarter on domestic real estate began to attract opportunity hunters to the real estate market. However, Czech flats and houses are not cheap across the board, and the sale in many cases refers to consignment goods, i.e. properties with a more or less acceptable handicap. Browsing real estate advertisements, the offer of which is sometimes unexpectedly advantageous compared to last year, thus presents significant risks. It is not such a problem to lose hundreds of thousands of crowns by your own mistake, or to “lock yourself” in an investment from which there is practically no escape.

“For people thinking about their own housing, who will finance the purchase from external sources, co-ownership can be a trap. In people’s minds, it is quite well established that buying a cooperative apartment is not suitable for those who plan to take out a loan. But even the mantra of personal ownership may not be enough,” warns independent real estate consultant Libor Váka, adding that there are still quite a lot of houses that are not divided into housing units.

“So the buyer buys an apartment only in the form of a share in the entire house. At the moment when he recklessly signed the reservation contract, it may be too late to realize that the bank will not take such an apartment as a mortgage,” adds Váka.

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