Can foreigners buy property in Czechia?

Yes. Anyone can buy a flat, a house or a building plot in Czechia, whatever their nationality and wherever they live. The last limits on buyers from outside the EU were lifted in 2011. You buy on the same terms as a Czech buyer: the same contract, the same land register and the same taxes. What your passport changes is mostly the mortgage, and a few papers.

Is there any limit on foreigners buying property?

No. Until 2011, the Foreign Exchange Act limited what property people from outside the EU could buy in their own name unless they had permanent residence in Czechia. An amendment struck that section out with effect from 19 July 2011.¹ Buyers from the EU had been free for longer.

Since then, no permit, no residence and no Czech company is needed to buy. The seller, the agent and the land register treat you as any other buyer. If you have no Czech birth number (rodné číslo), the register enters you with your date of birth, your citizenship and your address abroad.²

Should you buy in your own name or through a company?

Most people buying a home to live in buy in their own name. A company is a choice some investors make, and it changes the tax and the paperwork. Ask a tax adviser before you set one up for a single flat.

What will you actually own?

Most flats in Czech cities come in one of two forms, and the listing says which:

A unit in personal ownership is property in its own right. You can sell it, let it or leave it to your heirs, and the register shows you as its owner.

These are the flats for sale in Prague that ask the least against what similar flats nearby ask:

What is the SVJ, and why does it matter?

When you buy a flat in personal ownership, you also join the building's other owners. In a building with at least five units, at least four of them owned by different people, the owners form an association of unit owners (společenství vlastníků jednotek, SVJ).⁷ The SVJ looks after the building. It sets the repair fund (fond oprav), hires the administrator and votes on repairs. You become a member when you become an owner, and the members are liable for its debts in proportion to their shares.

The seller's unpaid contributions to the building can pass to you with the flat if you could have found out about them. The seller shows you what they owe with a confirmation from the building's administrator. If a debt isn't on that confirmation, it's presumed you couldn't have known.⁸ So ask for it before you sign, along with the last meetings' minutes and the repairs planned.

How do you check who owns a flat?

The land register (katastr nemovitostí) is public, and anyone may look into it.⁹ Search for the building or the flat on ČÚZK's free service, Nahlížení do katastru nemovitostí, by its address or its number. The extract of ownership (list vlastnictví, LV) shows it in parts:

Check that the seller in part A is the person signing your contract, and that part C is empty or will be cleared by the sale. A seller with a mortgage usually repays it from your price, and the contract says how. If the record shows that a change is being registered (a plomba, marked P), find out what it is before you go on.

What do you need as a buyer from abroad?

• Your passport or an EU identity card. That's the identity the contract and the register use.
• A lawyer (advokát) who works in your language, for the contract, the escrow and the filing with the land register. The contract can be bilingual, with the two languages side by side.
• Translations. The land register works in Czech. A document in another language needs an officially certified Czech translation.¹⁰ At a notary, a deed in a language you don't speak has to be interpreted for you.¹¹
• Verified signatures. Signatures on the purchase contract are usually officially verified (úředně ověřený podpis). Otherwise the register asks you to prove they're genuine within 30 days.¹²
• A power of attorney if you can't be there. It needs an officially verified signature too.¹³ If you sign it abroad, ask your lawyer what form of verification they need.

Which taxes does a foreign owner pay?

The same as a Czech owner.

• No transfer tax. The tax on acquiring property was abolished in 2020.¹⁴ You pay the cadastre fee and your own costs, set out in what buying a flat costs.
• Property tax every year. You file a return by 31 January of the year after you buy.¹⁵
• Tax on rent. Rent from a Czech flat is taxed in Czechia, even if you live abroad.¹⁶ Your home country may tax it too, and a tax treaty decides how. Ask a tax adviser in both countries.
• Tax on a sale. Selling is free of Czech income tax if the flat was your home for at least two years just before the sale, or if you owned it for more than ten years.¹⁷ Otherwise, ask a tax adviser.

Should you buy or rent?

If you're not sure how long you'll stay, buying is a big step. The rent or buy calculator puts the same home side by side: bought with a mortgage, or rented while the money you'd have put down is invested. It counts the Czech purchase costs, an owner's costs and mortgage interest relief, and shows from which year buying comes out ahead, if it does.

Here is Prague's market at a glance, from every listing Bytky tracks today:

Sources

1. Act 206/2011 Coll., amending the Foreign Exchange Act (Act 219/1995 Coll.) by repealing its §17, in force from 19 July 2011. ↩

2. Cadastre Act (Act 256/2013 Coll.), §14(1)(b). ↩

3. Ministry of the Interior, the long-term residence permit for the purpose of investment. ↩

4. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §21(1). ↩

5. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1158 and §1159. ↩

6. Business Corporations Act (Act 90/2012 Coll.), §736 and §601. ↩

7. Civil Code, §1194 and §1198. ↩

8. Civil Code, §1186. ↩

9. Cadastre Act, §52. ↩

10. Administrative Procedure Code (Act 500/2004 Coll.), §16. ↩

11. Notarial Code (Act 358/1992 Coll.), §69. ↩

12. Cadastre Act, §7(2). ↩

13. Cadastre Act, §15(1)(b). ↩

14. Act 386/2020 Coll., which abolished the tax on acquiring immovable property. ↩

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

16. Income Tax Act, §22(1)(e). ↩

17. Income Tax Act, §4(1)(a) and (b). ↩