Prague no longer wants to build apartments from the budget, it will use investors

Prague - The City of Prague no longer wants to build municipal rental apartments from its own budget. It will collaborate with private investors on this. The first project is currently under construction in Běchovice. The city provided the company BDS with land for the construction of two buildings with 86 apartments. Ten of these, valued at the price of the land, will be acquired by the Běchovice municipality and will serve as rental apartments.
"The city will go this way, it is a very promising area of collaboration with private investors," said the mayor's deputy Jan Bürgermeister (ODS) to journalists today.
According to him, the municipality currently has projects for the construction of another 2000 apartments. If the city council agrees, private investors will also be sought in competitions for these cases. The deputy believes that from this construction, the city could gain a higher share of living space for the land than in Běchovice, estimated at one-fifth to one-third.
The city is currently building 600 to 700 new rental apartments annually. It spends 700 million to a billion crowns on this. According to Bürgermeister, this will end next year. The municipality will be able to use the money for other purposes.
In Běchovice, the buildings are being constructed on the site of a former farm in Českobrodská Street. According to Mayor Jiří Santolík (ODS), the municipality should not even afford the demolition of the old buildings. Therefore, it proposed to go the route of cooperation with the investor, to which the municipality agreed.
The costs for the construction of the two residential buildings will amount to 126.5 million crowns. In addition to the ten apartments for rental housing, the others will be sold into private ownership. The construction started last June. The buildings are expected to be completed in the fall, ready for occupancy in November.