The government will add 2.8 billion CZK for the repair of panel houses by the end of the year

Prague - The budget of the State Housing Development Fund (SFRB) will increase by 2.8 billion to 4.3 billion crowns by the end of this year. The new money is intended for the renovation of panel buildings under the Panel program. The changes to the fund's budget were approved by the government today.
"By increasing the amount of money for repairs, we have met almost all of this year's requests from owners of panel apartments or houses," said the Minister for Regional Development Jiří Čunek at a press conference after the government meeting, adding that the necessary investments in repairs are estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of crowns. However, the minister did not specify where the government will get the money from.
The Panel program supports the reconstruction of panel buildings primarily through interest subsidies, which reduce market interest rates on loans from banks and savings institutions for investors by up to four percentage points.
Support will not only be provided for renovations in the Panel program, but also for necessary and emergency repairs of panel buildings, which are partly subsidized by the state. "For emergency repairs, we have secured an additional 100 million crowns by saving them from other areas," said the fund's director Jan Wagner.
One of the conditions for the repair grant for a panel building is its minimum age of 17 years. The grant must not exceed 40 percent of the actual repair costs and must not be higher than 55,000 CZK per apartment. The Building Authority must decide on the emergency condition of the panel building that requires repair.
More than a third of the population of the Czech Republic lives in panel buildings. Panel buildings account for the largest share (40 percent) of the housing stock in the socially weakest regions of Northern Moravia, Ústecko, and Karlovy Vary.