The Dossier · 1 November 2026
The EU Country Where SpaceX Is Faster Than Running Water
Yesterday a flyer arrived in my mailbox offering satellite internet from low Earth orbit. Meanwhile, two years after we moved in, our street still has no water main — and our permit to drill a new well has been pending for over a year.
This one is personal. My wife and I earn above the Czech average, yet Prague was out of reach — so we bought a 1930s house in a village 30 km away. Here's what that says about housing, permits and public infrastructure in Europe.
Chapters
The Fact Sheet
The numbers behind the episode, and where they come from.| # | Claim | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | House price index 2010 -> 2025 (annual average), Czechia vs EU | CZ 95.20 -> 245.40 (+158%); EU 98.11 -> 161.01 (+64%); ratio ~2.5x (index 2015=100, nominal) | Eurostat prc_hpi_a |
| E2 | Only four EU countries rose faster than Czechia since 2010 | 2010 -> Q1 2025: HU +260%, EE +238%, LT +194%, LV +154%... CZ +147% (5th in Eurostat's list); EU +57.9% (% nominal) | Eurostat news 2025-07-04 |
| E3 | Prague second least affordable city in Europe for a new flat | nearly 17 average gross annual salaries for a new 70 m2 flat (up from ~15 a year earlier); only Vlore, Albania worse (21.3) (gross annual salaries) | Deloitte Property Index via ČTK/newstream.cz |
| E4 | Average sale price of new flats in Prague | 182,845 CZK/m2 (Q2 2026, +~11% y/y); asking 187,781 CZK/m2 -> 70 m2 ≈ 12.8m CZK ≈ ~EUR 0.5m (CZK/m2) | Trigema, Central Group, Skanska Residential joint analysis |
| E5 | ČNB mortgage LTV limit | max LTV 80% (own funds >= 20%); 90% for borrowers under 36; DTI/DSTI caps not set; investment mortgages recommended LTV 70% from 2026-04-01 (% of property value) | Hypo na míru (summary of ČNB rules) |
| E6 | Czech new-build prices among highest in Europe | average new-build price ~132,000 CZK/m2 (EUR 5,412), second only to Luxembourg among countries in the index (EUR/m2) | Deloitte Property Index via ČTK |
| E7 | Prague permits falling | Jan-May 2026: 2,878 flats permitted in apartment buildings in Prague, -15% y/y; available flats ~6,450 (10-year high) (flats) | Trigema, Central Group, Skanska |
| E8 | What a household well needs in Czechia | water authority permit to abstract groundwater + building permit for the well + (if needed) geological works project / exploratory drilling + final approval (small wells exempt from inspection since 2025-08-01) (procedures) | Veřejný ochránce práv (Ombudsman) leaflet |
| E9 | Share of Czechs on public water supply | 94.5% of population supplied from public water mains (% population) | ČSÚ |
| E10 | World Bank Doing Business 2020 - dealing with construction permits | Czechia 157th of 190; 21 procedures; 246 days; behind e.g. Uganda, Tajikistan, Moldova; Slovakia 146, Germany 30 (rank / days) | World Bank Doing Business via Radio Prague Int. / banky.cz |
| E11 | Prague apartment block permitting takes ~10 years | 'ten or more years' to prepare and permit a typical Prague apartment building; Central Group founder: 'permit takes ten years; when it was seven, I celebrated' (years) | newstream.cz 2026-07-10; cc.cz interview with Dušan Kunovský |
| E12 | Czechia highest beer consumption per capita | 148.8 litres per person in 2024; world #1 for 32 consecutive years (litres/person/year) | Kirin Holdings |
The other side
In fairness
Czech incomes have also grown strongly since 2010, about 95% of the population is on public water, and one village is an anecdote, not a statistic. Prices are also driven by demand (cheap 2010s credit, investment buying, convergence), not only by permitting; a new building-act amendment (July 2026) and Prague's new zoning plan may speed things up.
Sources
- Eurostat, House price index prc_hpi_a (2010–2025): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/prc_hpi_a/default/table
- Eurostat news, house prices 2010–Q1 2025 (4 Jul 2025): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250704-4
- Deloitte Property Index 2026 via ČTK (Oct 2026): https://www.newstream.cz/money/na-byt-v-praze-padne-skoro-17-rocnich-platu-hur-je-uz-jen-v-jednom-evropskem-meste
- Deloitte Property Index 2025: https://www.deloitte.com/cz-sk/cs/about/press-room/praha-je-treti-nejmene-dostupna-metropole-evropy.html
- Trigema, Central Group & Skanska Residential, Prague new-build market Q2 2026: https://residential.skanska.cz/files/tz-q2-2026-tg-cg-sk.pdf
- Czech National Bank mortgage limits (summary): https://www.hyponamiru.cz/?p=4356
- Czech Ombudsman, guide to household wells: https://www.ochrance.cz/letaky/studny/studny.pdf
- Czech Statistical Office, public water supply (2023): https://csu.gov.cz/produkty/domacnosti-vodou-nadale-setri-v-prumyslu-jeji-spotreba-mirne-roste
- World Bank Doing Business 2020 via Radio Prague International: https://english.radio.cz/czechia-drops-157th-place-world-bank-building-permit-clearance-ranking-8116821
- Prague permitting times (developers, Jul 2026): https://www.newstream.cz/reality/byty-se-povoluji-i-deset-let-novela-ma-system-rozhybat-rozhodne-ale-az-praxe-rika-sefka-central-group
- Kirin Holdings, global beer consumption 2024: https://www.kirinholdings.com/en/newsroom/release/2025/1222_01.html
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