Housing Policy

Vendula Hnídková

Do you live in the country or in a city? Do you rent or do you own your property? Is it an apartment or a family house? What were the criteria defining your choice of housing type? Was it price, location, availability of jobs, schools, or forests? Or, was it instead the interest rates of mortgages, rising prices in selected locations, or conformity with the regime of a long time ago that secured you a position on the waiting list for an apartment or a house in the borderlands? A particular form of housing isn’t necessarily just a projection of individual desires, but in each age it is also a result of political decisions. Or the absence thereof.
The current crisis on the housing market, where mostly in large cities the supply of real estate is largely unable to satisfy the existing demand, has trapped citizens within their own economic limits. New construction is slowed down significantly by long legislative processes. Modern phenomena such as Airbnb further complicate the situation by increasing real estate prices. The social housing law hasn’t been approved yet, a significant part of the society finds itself in dire straits because of the legislation currently in effect. Therefore, today’s housing needs a carefully structured diagnosis and prudent political decisions.