New figures show Prague now needs housing for 1.55 million

The city has been underestimating the number of people in Prague, and
this has a big impact on future urban planning.

An economic study
focusing on housing for the metropolitan area of Prague and the
Central Bohemian Region shows that Prague must already count on
needing apartments for at least 1.55 million inhabitants. Previous
forecasts had been lower, calling for approximately 1.4 million
inhabitants in 2030.

A new analysis uses
anonymized demographic and location data from mobile operators, based
on people’s movements in February, October and December 2018.

It showed that
almost 300,000 to 400,000 people arrive in Prague everyday, leaving
again in the evening. This group commutes to Prague for work, study,
meetings, medical appointments, etc. If tourists using flats are
added, the data shows 1.75 million people in Prague on a weekday
afternoon.

According to the
analysis, there are around 1.55 million people who can be considered
residents. Of these, around 200,000 are those who live in Prague for
a long time, but stayed outside Prague for the monitored days, for
example on a domestic or foreign business trip. On the other hand,
200,000 to 250,000 people live in Prague but do not have a permanent
residence there, while the registered population is 1.3 million.

“Cities are no
longer centers of industry, but mainly of trade and services, and in
all respects they improve living conditions. Current figures show
that demand for living in Prague is even greater than we perceived,
and in the future we need to be able to work with such information on
a continuous basis,” Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (United Force for
Prague), responsible for territorial development, said.

“The city must
count on the rapid and efficient large-scale transformation of areas
that have been disused for many years. This is the only way to reduce
pressure on infrastructure and at least to stabilize the numbers of
those who commute every day,” he added.

Ondřej Špaček,
speaking on behalf of data analyst CE-Traffic, said the city now had
the opportunity to evaluate this data to get a more accurate picture
of the actual population. “Without such data, no city can proceed.
The number of people moving across the borders of Prague every day
can be called extreme, but no circumstances suggest that this trend
should decrease,” Špaček said.

As a result of many
people working in Prague, but living outside the capital, the
construction and support of housing in neighboring regions has
increased.

“The decline in
construction in Prague is being replaced by the regional housing
market, which has a number of negative consequences, especially the
increase in need for transport,” architect Lukáš Kohl from the
firm Doma je Doma said.

As a result of this
process, real estate prices have increased significantly in the
districts of Prague-East and Prague-West. The average price of a
family house has increased by millions, and rental prices in the
entire catchment area have increased by dozens of percent, especially
in areas with good transport links with Prague.

Among other factors
that influence construction, experts cited slow building permits,
rising land prices, high tax burdens, and, in particular, a rise in
construction work prices coupled with labor shortages, affecting the
economic balance of projects.

“In some cases,
there is a serious risk that inputs will be so expensive that the
project will not be feasible … even if it has all the permits,”
real estate expert Eduard Forejt said.