Buying a flat in Czechia, step by step

Buying a flat in Czechia takes from a few weeks to a few months after you find it. You become the owner when the land register (katastr nemovitostí) enters you, not when you sign or when you pay. Until then the price waits in escrow, so neither side can walk off with the other's money. Here's the path, step by step.

How long does it take?

Buying a flat that isn't built yet takes more steps, spread over the build: buying a new build off-plan covers them.

Step 1: Work out your budget

Your budget is the price plus the purchase costs, and the deposit a bank wants on top of its loan. What buying a flat costs sets out the whole bill. If you need a mortgage, talk to a bank or a broker before you look seriously. An approval in principle tells you your ceiling and lets you move fast when the right flat comes up. As a foreigner, read getting a mortgage in Czechia first.

Step 2: Find a flat and judge its price

Every listing on Bytky gets a fair price from what similar flats nearby ask, and a verdict from Good deal to Pricey. These are the newest flats in Prague that ask less than their fair price:

For a flat you found elsewhere, use the price check. Type the address, pick the layout and the size, and see what similar flats nearby ask to buy and to rent:

Try itPrice check: pick a place on the map, then describe the home.

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Search an address or click the map to place the home.

Search an address or click the map to place the home.

Is the asking price fair? explains how to read the verdict, and when to offer less.

Step 3: Check the flat and its papers

A viewing (prohlídka) shows you the flat. The papers show you what you'd be buying. Ask for these before you reserve:

• The land register extract (list vlastnictví). Check that the seller is the owner and see what weighs on the flat, such as a mortgage or an enforcement order. Can foreigners buy property in Czechia? explains how to read it.
• The form of ownership. A flat in personal ownership (osobní vlastnictví) or a share in a cooperative (družstevní byt). With a cooperative, ask for its articles (stanovy) too. Buying a cooperative flat explains what else to check.
• The building's finances. Ask the building's administrator, or the association of unit owners (SVJ), how much is in the repair fund (fond oprav), what works are planned and whether the owners are repaying a loan. Read the minutes of the last meetings.
• The seller's debts to the building. A confirmation from the administrator of what the seller owes. Debts that aren't on it don't pass to you.²
• The energy certificate (průkaz energetické náročnosti budovy, PENB). The seller must show it to you before you sign anything, and hand it over at the latest when you sign the purchase contract.³

If you're not sure about the state of the building, bring someone who knows buildings to a second viewing. Look at the windows, the risers, the roof and the damp patches. They cost the building money, and the building's money is partly yours.

Step 4: Reserve the flat

An agent will usually ask you to sign a reservation agreement (rezervační smlouva) and pay a reservation fee. The seller then takes the flat off the market for an agreed time. Before you sign, read what happens to the fee if your mortgage falls through, if the papers show a problem or if the seller pulls out. Have your lawyer read it too.

Step 5: Sign the purchase contract

The purchase contract (kupní smlouva) must be in writing, with both sides' signatures on the same document.⁵ It names the flat by its land register details, the price, how the price is paid through escrow, when you get the keys and what happens to any mortgage the seller still has. Your lawyer drafts it or reads the seller's draft. The contract can be bilingual, with Czech beside your language.

The signatures are usually officially verified, at a notary or a Czech POINT office, or by a lawyer's declaration that has the same effect.⁶ If you take a mortgage, you also sign a pledge agreement (zástavní smlouva) that lets the bank register its mortgage on the flat.

Step 6: Pay into escrow

The price goes to an escrow holder (úschova), not to the seller: your deposit from you, the rest from your bank. There are three kinds:

The escrow contract says when the money goes to the seller. Usually that's once the land register shows you as the owner, with no new entries in part C. If the entry is refused, the money comes back to you. With a mortgage, the bank pays its part when the loan contract's conditions are met, often once the pledge has been filed with the land register.

Step 7: File with the land register

The application for entry (návrh na vklad) goes to the cadastre office with the contract, usually filed by your lawyer. The fee is 2,000 Kč.⁹ The office marks the flat as having a change pending (a plomba), and tells the current owner at the latest the next day.¹⁰ It may enter you no sooner than 20 days after sending that notice.¹ Once entered, you're the owner from the moment the application reached the office.¹¹

ČÚZK, which runs the land register, publishes the average time from filing to entry each month, so check it before you agree a moving date.¹²

Step 8: Take the keys

At the handover the seller gives you the keys and you both sign a handover record (předávací protokol). It lists the meter readings for water, electricity and gas, the keys you got and any defects you saw. Then switch the energy contracts to your name. If you find a hidden defect later, tell the seller in writing as soon as you can. For the building, the law gives you at most five years from acquiring it.¹³

Step 9: After you move in

• Tell the building's administrator that you're the new owner, with your name and address and how many people will live in the flat.¹⁴
• File a property tax return by 31 January of the year after you buy. You file it once, and again only if something changes.¹⁵ The tax is due by 31 May each year, or in two halves by 31 May and 30 November if it's over 5,000 Kč.¹⁶
• Insure the flat. A mortgage bank will usually require it.
• Claim the mortgage interest in your income tax return, if the flat is your home.

Sources

1. Cadastre Act (Act 256/2013 Coll.), §18(1). ↩ ↩²

2. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1186. ↩

3. Energy Management Act (Act 406/2000 Coll.), §7a(2). ↩

4. Real Estate Brokerage Act (Act 39/2020 Coll.), §4. ↩

5. Civil Code, §560 and §561(2). ↩

6. Cadastre Act, §7(2), and Advocacy Act (Act 85/1996 Coll.), §25a. ↩

7. Advocacy Act, §52g. ↩

8. Notarial Code (Act 358/1992 Coll.), §81. ↩

9. Administrative Fees Act (Act 634/2004 Coll.), item 120. ↩

10. Cadastre Act, §16(1). ↩

11. Cadastre Act, §10, and Civil Code, §1105. ↩

12. ČÚZK, monthly statistics of the cadastre offices. ↩

13. Civil Code, §2129(2). ↩

14. Civil Code, §1177. ↩

15. Property Tax Act (Act 338/1992 Coll.), §13a. ↩

16. Property Tax Act, §15. ↩