Prague leads in the number of completed and started apartments

Prague - Builders completed nearly 4,800 apartments in Prague in the last quarter of last year, the most of any region in the Czech Republic. The people in the capital also began constructing the largest number of apartments, just under 2,600. This information comes from data released today by the Czech Statistical Office. However, according to the developers interviewed, Prague will not maintain its dominant position for much longer.
    The majority of the completed apartments in Prague are in apartment buildings, where construction companies finalized 4,172 apartments in the last three months of the year. The remaining 296 housing units were in family homes. People also constructed additional apartments in extensions and annexes or converted non-residential spaces. In the third quarter, people were able to move into a total of 1,617 apartments, of which 1,142 were in apartment buildings.
    Prague ranks first in the number of completed apartments, followed by the Central Bohemian and South Moravian regions, but both are lagging behind the capital by about 2,000 housing units. The Karlovy Vary region reported the fewest completed apartments with 239 units. However, in the third quarter, builders in the Central Bohemian Region completed over 2,100 apartments, which was about 500 more than in the capital.
    "Prague and its surroundings are the most attractive in the whole of the Czech Republic, but it is very likely that the gap between Prague and its surroundings and the rest of the country will not reach such proportions in the coming years," said Radek Polák, spokesperson for Sekyra Group, to ČTK. According to Miluše Netolická from Central Group, it is likely that Prague will maintain its leading position in the number of completed apartments in 2008. "But then it will decline and construction will shift to Central Bohemia," added Netolická. According to her, there will be a lack of locations for building new houses in the capital.
    In the last three months of 2007, people began constructing 2,579 houses, of which the statistical office registered 480 in family homes. The number of initiated apartments slightly increased compared to the third quarter, with statisticians counting 2,476 from July to the end of September.
    While at the end of last year, 45 housing units were completed in assisted living facilities, builders did not initiate any further. The previous quarter was not much better with just one initiated apartment.
    Owners are also embarking on modernizing their apartments. In the fourth quarter of 2007, they began renovations on nearly two thousand apartments, completing over a thousand.
    In the fourth quarter, a total of 17,824 apartments were completed across the Czech Republic, which was an increase of 48.2 percent year-on-year. Construction began on 11,978 apartments, which is 1.1 percent more than in the same period of 2006.