The Ministry of Finance presented the first details of the upcoming rent price map project. In the future, this overview of real rental prices in the Czech Republic should determine the price level, for example, for housing benefits, but also co-define social and affordable housing.
According to Martina Sieber, advisor to the Minister of Finance and co-author of the Price Maps, who spoke about the details during a debate organized by the Rental Housing Association, the project is currently in the testing phase.
According to her, the Ministry of Finance is going to update the data of the price map twice a year, and it should be based on data from real estate portals that display the offer prices of rents.
“The price map will divide the rent into three size categories, according to common layouts of apartments – 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom,” said Sieber.
Price maps will be a key tool mainly for the Ministry for Regional Development, which should start using them as early as next year.
“For example, they will help set rent limits for the construction of affordable housing, in which, according to the MMR, mainly municipalities and also the private sector should participate,” said Petr Waleczko, press spokesman for the MMR.
The draft law on support in housing envisages the creation of contact points that will use the price maps, for example, to check whether payments in apartments with a rent guarantee are not overpriced.
“It is also about whether the price maps should not be used to set standards when calculating housing allowances,” adds the spokesperson of the department.
According to information from the Ministry for Regional Development, which cooperates in the creation of price maps, in addition to the usual market rent in a given locality, a comparison of the price level for new construction should gradually become available, for example. “It is also about the creation of price maps for rent in municipal apartments,” concludes spokesperson Petr Waleczko.
