5 ms·

And Central/Eastern Europe is still hurting today because of policies like this.

xg15 5y ago
Because of policies like this? Please explain.
ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Hurting how? The real estate market in Easter Europe is better than in Western Europe as the communist governments built many high density housing in the cities so reas estate remains affordable for young people with skilled jobs even today. Compare that to Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and you can't afford anything as a young professional without a FAANG job or help from parents and a 30 year bank loan. Eastern Europe is hurting in many ways due to corruption and political incompetence but the real estate market remains mostly affordable compared to the west.
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  The Czech Republic is AFAIK the worst EU country when it comes to the ratio of real estate price to net income. It wasn't that bad five or six years ago, but now we are screwed beyond belief. Edit: and no, it is not just the tourist hotspots like Prague, even though AirBnB contributed to the situation, especially in the rental market. Prices are crazy everywhere, including rust belt cities that have been losing population for a generation.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    I'm just glad today that our family managed to purchase a three-story house from the municipal government for the equivalent of $US6K (!) about twenty years ago. In retrospect probably one of the best investments anyone could have ever made at that time. North Bohemia, but still...
    - inglor_cz 5y ago
      I hear you, brother. Or sister. I am now in process of buying a 120 sqm semidetached house in Ostrava. It is under construction right now. The price was about 270K USD. And this is in Ostrava, where good job opportunities are infrequent and which lost 40 thousand inhabitants since 1990. And the construction corp. that is building the houses recently posted a new project of pretty much the same type of houses, only a mile away, but for 330K USD instead of 270K. This is the price growth since May! The average salary in CZ is like 1600 USD/monthly pre-tax. The same new house somewhere around Prague would be around 500K USD at least, possibly 600K.
      - jhgb 5y ago
        I know what Ostrava is like. Good luck with your house. BTW our house has something like 160 sqm on those three floors, an attic, a cellar, and an attached three-level terrace garden (on a hill slope behind the house), all on a 250 sqm land parcel. The reason why it came for $US6k was that nobody wanted it when the town was trying to sell it (for around $US20k at the time), so the town put it into auction (with a ~$US6k initial minimum bid), where we (one of the tenant families at the time) were the sole bidders. I guess we were just lucky.
        inglor_cz 5y ago
        Oh, you were :) I think the areas where cost-of-living is cheaper will see an influx of remotely working people. Prices around Prague and Brno have become too insane even for middle class professionals and crossed into the "front end for mafia" territory, as these are among the last buyers who can afford them.
- jhgb 5y ago
  Don't know about Eastern Europe, but in Central Europe, Czech Republic (an Prague in particular) has had a housing crisis for quite some time.
  - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
    Well, Prague, like Paris, London, Barcelona, etc. suffers the curse of being a touristic hotspot so it's difficult to compete with all the AirBnBs that rake in that sweet tourist $$$. I'm sure the rest of Czech republic that has less tourists are a lot more affordable.
    - jhgb 5y ago
      Anecdotally, an acquaintance of mine had to put down a ~$US10K non-refundable deposit (several monthly wages back then, even for her way-above-average income at that time) to just be allowed to compete for a rented flat in Prague with other prospective tenants...more than twenty years ago. So well before any AirBnB or anything like that.
      - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
        Sound kinda like a scam targeting rich foreigners. Like how in Berlin the landlords will make you buy their furniture off them for ~15.000 Euros if you want to rent their apartment as it's a seller's market. Crazy times we live in in Europe.
        jhgb 5y ago
        Uh...she was a Czech, just like I am. That's simply how housing in Prague worked back then, apparently. I'm just glad that I was just a student living in affordable dorms at that time (something like $US40 per month or so? I don't recall the exact figure anymore). She was a Prague native. BTW, as for "the rest of Czech Republic", things are not rosy in general: https://english.radio.cz/no-end-sight-inflation-czech-housing-market-8722538 https://english.radio.cz/no-end-sight-inflation-czech-housin... If the article about the US situation claims 118% of inflation-adjusted price increase since 1965, that's less than 2% increase per year. Not quite sure how this number is comparable to recent Czech figures, but I'm sure that Czech inflation wasn't anywhere near seven percent in the last years, so there's that. A 65% price increase since 2015 would be 9% annually on average. Czech inflation between 2015 and 2020 has been ~2.25%/y on average. So that would make the price rises adjusted for inflation 6.6%/y on average.

xg15 5y ago

Because of policies like this? Please explain.

Hurting how? The real estate market in Easter Europe is better than in Western Europe as the communist governments built many high density housing in the cities so reas estate remains affordable for young people with skilled jobs even today. Compare that to Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and you can't afford anything as a young professional without a FAANG job or help from parents and a 30 year bank loan. Eastern Europe is hurting in many ways due to corruption and political incompetence but the real estate market remains mostly affordable compared to the west.

inglor_cz 5y ago
The Czech Republic is AFAIK the worst EU country when it comes to the ratio of real estate price to net income. It wasn't that bad five or six years ago, but now we are screwed beyond belief. Edit: and no, it is not just the tourist hotspots like Prague, even though AirBnB contributed to the situation, especially in the rental market. Prices are crazy everywhere, including rust belt cities that have been losing population for a generation.
- jhgb 5y ago
  I'm just glad today that our family managed to purchase a three-story house from the municipal government for the equivalent of $US6K (!) about twenty years ago. In retrospect probably one of the best investments anyone could have ever made at that time. North Bohemia, but still...
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    I hear you, brother. Or sister. I am now in process of buying a 120 sqm semidetached house in Ostrava. It is under construction right now. The price was about 270K USD. And this is in Ostrava, where good job opportunities are infrequent and which lost 40 thousand inhabitants since 1990. And the construction corp. that is building the houses recently posted a new project of pretty much the same type of houses, only a mile away, but for 330K USD instead of 270K. This is the price growth since May! The average salary in CZ is like 1600 USD/monthly pre-tax. The same new house somewhere around Prague would be around 500K USD at least, possibly 600K.
    - jhgb 5y ago
      I know what Ostrava is like. Good luck with your house. BTW our house has something like 160 sqm on those three floors, an attic, a cellar, and an attached three-level terrace garden (on a hill slope behind the house), all on a 250 sqm land parcel. The reason why it came for $US6k was that nobody wanted it when the town was trying to sell it (for around $US20k at the time), so the town put it into auction (with a ~$US6k initial minimum bid), where we (one of the tenant families at the time) were the sole bidders. I guess we were just lucky.
      - inglor_cz 5y ago
        Oh, you were :) I think the areas where cost-of-living is cheaper will see an influx of remotely working people. Prices around Prague and Brno have become too insane even for middle class professionals and crossed into the "front end for mafia" territory, as these are among the last buyers who can afford them.
jhgb 5y ago
Don't know about Eastern Europe, but in Central Europe, Czech Republic (an Prague in particular) has had a housing crisis for quite some time.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  Well, Prague, like Paris, London, Barcelona, etc. suffers the curse of being a touristic hotspot so it's difficult to compete with all the AirBnBs that rake in that sweet tourist $$$. I'm sure the rest of Czech republic that has less tourists are a lot more affordable.
  - jhgb 5y ago
    Anecdotally, an acquaintance of mine had to put down a ~$US10K non-refundable deposit (several monthly wages back then, even for her way-above-average income at that time) to just be allowed to compete for a rented flat in Prague with other prospective tenants...more than twenty years ago. So well before any AirBnB or anything like that.
    - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
      Sound kinda like a scam targeting rich foreigners. Like how in Berlin the landlords will make you buy their furniture off them for ~15.000 Euros if you want to rent their apartment as it's a seller's market. Crazy times we live in in Europe.
      - jhgb 5y ago
        Uh...she was a Czech, just like I am. That's simply how housing in Prague worked back then, apparently. I'm just glad that I was just a student living in affordable dorms at that time (something like $US40 per month or so? I don't recall the exact figure anymore). She was a Prague native. BTW, as for "the rest of Czech Republic", things are not rosy in general: https://english.radio.cz/no-end-sight-inflation-czech-housing-market-8722538 https://english.radio.cz/no-end-sight-inflation-czech-housin... If the article about the US situation claims 118% of inflation-adjusted price increase since 1965, that's less than 2% increase per year. Not quite sure how this number is comparable to recent Czech figures, but I'm sure that Czech inflation wasn't anywhere near seven percent in the last years, so there's that. A 65% price increase since 2015 would be 9% annually on average. Czech inflation between 2015 and 2020 has been ~2.25%/y on average. So that would make the price rises adjusted for inflation 6.6%/y on average.