Compare two areas

Choose on what you can't change once you've signed: what a flat costs there, how long the trip to work or school takes, and what's within a walk of the door. The comparison puts every figure Bytky has for two places side by side, for the flat size you need, and marks which one is ahead on each, or that the two are about the same. It never names a winner, because which rows matter depends on you.

How to use the comparison

1. Pick two areas. Search for each by name. Or start from one of the examples under the picker, such as Vinohrady or Žižkov, and change one side.
2. Pick the flat size. One to four rooms or more, as Czech listings count them: a studio counts as one room, and 2+kk and 2+1 both count as two. Czech flat layouts, explained has the rest.
3. Pick a place to get to, if the trip matters: the city centre, the airport, or one of the business districts on the list, such as Karlín, Pankrác or Anděl.

Swap the two sides with one click, or pick another area for either. The comparison stays in the page's link, so you can send it to whoever is choosing with you. From the neighbourhood finder, tick two areas on its list to compare them here.

Reading the comparison

At the top, where each one is ahead lists the rows each area leads on, and how many figures are about the same. Below it, the rows come in three groups.

Flats on offer now. For the size you picked:

• Rent a month, with charges, and the asking price: the medians of the flats on offer. The cheaper side is ahead.
• Asking price per m²: the fairer way to compare prices when one area's flats run bigger.
• Gross rental yield: a year's rent against the price. Ahead means higher, which matters if you're buying to let.
• Days on the market, to rent and for sale: how long the flats on offer now have been listed. Fewer days means flats go faster: you'll have less time to decide, and less room to haggle.
• Flats to rent now and for sale now: more on offer means more to choose from.

A dash means fewer flats of the size on offer than a median needs, or no figure for that area.

Living there. For the neighbourhoods of Prague and Brno, measured over the homes on the market in each: the transit and amenity scores, the share of homes with a school, a kindergarten or a park within walking distance, the share where night noise from traffic is high, how much of the land is park or forest, and the bars and pubs a km². Night noise, green land and the transit score cover Prague so far, so in Brno those rows stay empty for now. An area the finder doesn't rank, such as a town or a whole city district, has no figures here: pick one of its neighbourhoods to fill them in.

Getting there. With a place picked, each side gets its trip, in 15-minute bands, so “under 15 min” against “15–30 min” is a real difference and two trips in the same band are about the same.

Under the table, “All about” opens each area's page, with everything Bytky knows about it.

A worked example

The figures here are made up, and so are the two places, North and South. Yours come from the flats on offer today.

A couple are moving to Prague for a job at Pankrác and want to rent a two-room flat. They narrow it to two neighbourhoods and compare them with Pankrác as the place to get to:

South is ahead on three rows, North on two, and one is about the same, but counting rows isn't the point. For this couple, the rent, the quiet and the trip are what they'll feel every day, so South wins for them. North's two rows still tell them something: South has fewer flats to choose from, and they stay listed longer. So the couple can take their time in South, and should expect to wait a few weeks for the right flat. A student who wants bars and a short ride into town might read the same table the other way.

Here are two neighbourhoods side by side, live, as their area pages show them:

How the figures are worked out

Rents and prices are the medians of the flats of your size on offer today, from every listing Bytky tracks. Rents include the charges, so the row compares what you'd pay each month, not just the rent the landlord asks. A median needs a minimum number of flats; the method under the guide gives it.

The gross yield is twelve months of the median rent per m² over the median price per m², for flats of the size.

Days on the market is the median time the flats still on offer have been listed. It isn't how long the flats that went took to go: those are no longer on offer to count.

Living there uses the same facts as the neighbourhood finder: the transit and amenity scores that every listing shows, the schools, kindergartens and parks within reach of each home, Prague's strategic noise map, the city's maps of parks and forest, and the bars and pubs from OpenStreetMap. They're measured over the homes on the market, so they describe where flats are, not an area's empty corners.

Trips run on the public transport timetables, from the place you pick to the middle of each area.

About the same. Every row has a margin. Rents and prices within a few per cent of each other, or scores a few points apart, aren't a real difference, so the row calls them about the same instead of naming a side. The method lists each row's margin.

Mistakes people make

• Comparing a district with a neighbourhood. A district's median mixes its centre with its edges. Compare like with like: two neighbourhoods, or two towns.
• Mixing up rents with and without the charges. The rent here includes them. A listing's headline rent, the price check and the neighbourhood finder's budget don't.
• Reading “ahead” as “better”. “More nightlife” is ahead on its row, and it's a drawback if you want to sleep. Each row says which side has more of something, not which one you should want.
• Treating a small gap as real. That's what “about the same” is for. Two rents a few hundred crowns apart can swap places as a few flats come and go.
• Forgetting the flat itself. A quiet courtyard flat in a lively area, or a renovated one in a cheap area, beats its area's figures. The comparison describes areas, and you'll live in one flat.
• Not going there. Walk both on a weekday morning and on a Friday night before you sign anything.

What to do next

Not sure which two to compare? The neighbourhood finder ranks all of Prague's neighbourhoods on your budget, your trip and what matters to you, and its Brno version does the same for Brno. Our guides to Prague's neighbourhoods and where to live in Brno describe them in words. Salary to rent works out the rent your pay covers, and move-in costs the cash you need on the day.