Although in the second half of 2022 house and apartment prices started to fall in most of the Czech Republic, their decline was only moderate. Older flats in prefabricated and brick developments reached peak prices in mid-2022 and then wrote off an average of 4.3% by the end of the year. However, older flats continued to rise in price year-on-year, by 3.4% (Chart 1).

While prices for the whole of the Czech Republic fell by the aforementioned 4.3% from their peak to the end of the year, in Prague alone they fell by just 1%. On the other hand, prices in the Liberec region fell by 15 percent, in the Karlovy Vary region by more than 13 percent, and the Moravian-Silesian, Ústí nad Labem, Central Bohemia and Kralovehradecky regions also recorded double-digit or nearly double-digit declines. The South Moravian region recorded only a slight price decrease in one quarter, but prices reached a new peak in the last quarter of last year.

For new buildings, discounts and various marketing promotions appeared on the market. However, they have not filtered through to selling prices at all. On the contrary, average prices of newly sold flats increased by 11% to CZK 120,000 per 1m2. They are highest in Prague (CZK 151,643 per 1m2) and the average price in the regions increased by 14% to CZK 100,692 per 1m2.

Real estate market activity fell by 50% last year