Welcome to another edition of Real Estate Week — my Monday look back at what happened to rents, flat prices and mortgages here in Brno and across South Moravia over the past seven days. As always, written for people, not for spreadsheets. If you like hard numbers, they are all collected at the end of the article.
Before we get to the numbers, one thing that matters more today than rates do: tomorrow is 1 September, the first day of the Czech school year. To all the children starting school for the first time — I wish you a great start, a classmate you can laugh with, and that you still look forward to school in November, not just tomorrow. And to the parents: patience. This is your hardest week of the year. 🎒
The first of September does not only start the school year, though. It also opens the strongest selling season of the year — which is the one thing worth hearing if you have been telling yourself you might sell this year. Several numbers from the past seven days back that up.
This week has a clear winner: Brno now has the fastest-growing rents in the country. On top of that, mortgages got more expensive again, and one finding about housing supply quietly demolished a textbook rule.
Rents in Brno rose 12 %, the fastest of any Czech city
The academic year is starting, and with it the annual scramble for rental flats. This year with one difference: rents in Brno jumped 12 % year on year — the sharpest rise among all the university cities tracked. We are now at CZK 447 per square metre per month.
More interesting than the number itself is the comparison with Prague. Prague is still the most expensive (CZK 462/m²), but it added only 3.8 %. The gap between Brno and Prague has therefore shrunk to fifteen crowns per square metre. In practice: for a 30 m² flat you now pay around CZK 13,410 a month in Brno, versus CZK 13,860 in Prague. Practically the same.
I do not read this as "Brno has suddenly become as expensive as Prague". I read it as Brno catching up with Prague on demand, not on supply. We have tens of thousands of students, strong IT and R&D employers and a university hospital — combined with a city that is not expanding as fast as it would need to. When demand grows faster than the number of flats, the price finds a way.
For comparison: student dormitories in Brno cost CZK 4,000–7,000 a month for a shared room and CZK 7,000–10,000 for a single. The gap against private rentals is still substantial — which is exactly why dorm places are so heavily oversubscribed.
Students are not the only ones September reshuffles, though — and here I want to correct a widespread assumption. People often tell me the market goes into hibernation in autumn. The opposite is true: September and October are the two strongest months of the whole year for completed sales. In my own practice this is entirely reliable. People come back from holidays to decisions they postponed over the summer, banks, lawyers and the land registry are all running at full speed, and buyers who hesitated all summer suddenly want the deal closed before the end of the year.
School has surprisingly little to do with it. Families do time moves around a child starting at a new school — but that belongs to the spring wave, May and June, so the move can happen over the summer holidays. The autumn wave is something else: decisions that have simply ripened.
So if you are considering selling, now is the right time. Not in a month, not "after Christmas" — the strongest window of the year is opening right now and runs roughly to the end of October.
Do you own a flat in Brno and rent it out? This is the one period in the year when your negotiating position is genuinely strong — demand peaks in September. That does not mean you should push the price to the ceiling. A decent tenant who stays three years will earn you more than one who pays five hundred crowns extra and leaves after a year. An empty flat over the winter reliably eats that whole "premium".
Mortgage rates in August 2026: still going up
If you were hoping mortgages would finally turn downwards, this is another month of bad news. August brought a further round of increases, and at some banks it was not small — they added up to 0.4 of a percentage point in a single month.
The average offered rate on a three-year fixation rose roughly from 5.00 % to 5.12 %, and on a five-year fixation from 5.22 % to 5.33 %. The Swiss Life Hypoindex, which tracks mortgages actually signed, stands at 5.42 %.
The spread between banks is enormous, though — from 4.58 % at the cheapest offer up to 5.99 %. Over the life of a typical mortgage that is a difference of hundreds of thousands of crowns. Visiting three banks pays off more today than at any point in the last two years.
And then there is the issue affecting hundreds of thousands of households: refixation. Anyone who took a mortgage in 2020–2021 at around two percent will now be rewriting it at around five. The Czech National Bank estimates that in 2026 through 2028, fixations will expire each year on loans worth roughly CZK 534 billion. No wonder refinancing has already climbed to 23.4 % of the market.
The end of a fixation is not a formality you settle with a letter from the bank a week in advance. Start dealing with it six months ahead. Your bank will almost never put its best offer in that first letter — and the conversation changes considerably once you have a competitor's offer on the table.
More properties on the market, but housing did not get cheaper
This is what struck me most this week. Basic economics says more goods on the market means lower prices. In Czech real estate over the past five years, that has simply not held.
And supply did expand enormously. There are 93.3 % more flats on offer than in 2021, 147.2 % more family houses, and a remarkable 266.9 % more building plots. Yet flat prices over the same period rose 39.8 % — from CZK 70,491 to CZK 98,530 per square metre (national average).
Why? Because demand grew faster than supply. You can see it in selling speed too: a flat today sells in an average of 53 days. In 2021 it was 99 days; in 2023 it was 182. The market is faster than it was five years ago even with twice as much stock on it.
What it means for buyers, sellers and landlords
Buying in Brno? Do not expect the volume of listings to push prices down for you — five years of data say the opposite. Your leverage is not the market as a whole but the specific flat: its condition, its energy performance, and how long it has been sitting in the listings.
Selling, or thinking about it? This is your moment. Three things line up at once: the strongest selling window of the year is opening (September–October), flats now sell in 53 days instead of the former 99, and demand still outpaces supply. Fifty-three days is an average, though, not a promise — it holds for a well-prepared property at a realistic price. An overpriced listing does not just cost you time: after two price cuts, buyers start asking what is wrong with the flat. And anyone who postpones until "after Christmas" trades the strongest months of the year for the weakest.
Renting out in Brno? You have just had the best year in the country. Treat it as the result of strong demand, not as an entitlement going forward — the rental market calms down once September passes (sales are the opposite; they keep going).
Is your fixation ending? Start today. Rates went up in August, not down, and waiting for a miracle can cost you thousands a month.
Briefly from legislation
As of 1 September 2026, an amendment to the Housing Support Act (Act No. 129/2026 Coll.) takes effect. It is largely organisational — the housing support agenda passes to the Czech Labour Office (Úřad práce ČR), advisory services are provided by the municipal authorities of municipalities with extended powers, and the existing "housing contact points" are abolished. It does not touch ordinary sales or leases, but anyone applying for housing support now goes somewhere else.
On the same day, Prague's new zoning plan comes into force — its first in over 25 years, with capacity for up to 350,000 new flats. It does not apply to Brno directly, but it is worth watching: according to a survey by the Association for Real Estate Market Development, experts expect a visible impact only in two to eight years. Zoning changes are not a sprint.
What does it mean for foreigners on the Czech real estate market?
Two things from this week matter to you directly, plus the evergreen basics.
Rents in Brno are the story of the week for internationals. If you are arriving for a master's programme, a PhD or a job at one of the Brno tech or biotech employers, budget around CZK 13,410 a month for a 30 m² flat, plus utilities on top and typically a deposit of one to three months' rent. September is the single worst month to be looking — supply is at its thinnest and landlords have the upper hand. If you can search in July or arrive with temporary accommodation booked, you will get a materially better deal.
On the housing support amendment: the law effective 1 September 2026 sets out who may request that a need for a support measure be entered in the register. Alongside people with Czech permanent residence, it explicitly names people granted asylum or subsidiary protection, holders of long-term EU resident status in another EU member state who hold a Czech long-term residence permit, and people entitled to equal treatment under EU law (Directive 2004/38/EC). This is social housing support, not something that affects buying or renting on the open market — but it is a rare case where the wording of a Czech housing law addresses foreign nationals explicitly.
The evergreen basics, which have not changed this week:
- Who can buy. Foreign nationals — EU and non-EU alike — can buy flats, houses and land in the Czech Republic. There is no separate permit regime, and buying property does not grant you residence or a visa.
- Mortgages. Czech banks do lend to foreigners, but conditions vary a lot by bank and by your residence status and income source. EU citizens with Czech income generally get close to standard terms; non-EU applicants are more often asked for a larger deposit. With the spread between banks currently running from 4.58 % to 5.99 %, comparing several banks matters even more than it does for locals.
- Currency. Prices, mortgages and rents are in Czech crowns. If you earn in euros or dollars, the exchange rate is a real part of your risk — a mortgage in CZK against income in another currency can move against you.
- Get it checked. Before signing anything, have the title deed (list vlastnictví) and the contract reviewed by a Czech lawyer, and discuss the tax side with a Czech tax advisor. Rules on rental income, capital gains on sale and property tax apply to you the same way they apply to Czech owners.
For those who like numbers
I promised hard data — here it is, with sources:
- Rents in university cities, August 2026 (CZK/m² per month and year-on-year change): Prague CZK 462/m² (+3.8 %), Brno CZK 447/m² (+12.0 %), Hradec Králové 309 (+9.2 %), Pardubice 298 (+1.0 %), Plzeň 298 (+5.7 %), Zlín 281 (+1.4 %), Liberec 277 (0 %), České Budějovice 276 (+5.7 %), Olomouc 268 (−2.2 %), Ostrava 250 (+7.8 %), Jihlava 239 (+3.0 %), Ústí nad Labem 236 (+8.8 %). Indicative rent for a 30 m² flat: Prague CZK 13,860, Brno CZK 13,410 per month. Brno dormitories: shared room CZK 4,000–7,000, single room CZK 7,000–10,000 per month. Data from REMAX Česko. (source: Hypoindex.cz, 25 Aug 2026)
- Mortgage rates, August 2026: average offered rate on a three-year fixation from 5.00 % to 5.12 %, on a five-year fixation from 5.22 % to 5.33 %, one-year fixation +0.06 pp. Swiss Life Hypoindex 5.42 %. Lowest offered rates as of 24 Aug 2026: Fio banka 4.58 % (3 years), Moneta 4.79 % (1 year), Air Bank and Raiffeisenbank 4.99 % (1 year); highest mBank 5.99 % (1 year) and Komerční banka 5.74 % (5 years). Largest monthly increases: Partners Banka +0.40 pp on the five-year fixation, ČSOB +0.30 pp on three- and five-year, Česká spořitelna +0.15 pp across fixations. (source: Hypoindex.cz, 24 Aug 2026)
- Refixation 2026–2028: the Czech National Bank estimates that fixations will expire each year on loans worth an average of CZK 534 billion. Refinancing accounts for 23.4 % of the mortgage market, up from 20.6 % last year. Rates are holding in a band of roughly 4.5–5 %. (source: Hypoindex.cz, 26 Aug 2026)
- Supply vs. prices, July 2021 → July 2026: number of flats on offer +93.3 % (from 15,379 to 29,734), family houses +147.2 %, building plots +266.9 %. Average offered flat price nonetheless rose 39.8 % — from CZK 70,491 to CZK 98,530/m² (national average). Average time to sell a flat: 53 days (2026) versus 99 days (2021) and 182 days (2023). Data from the Realiťák roku project in cooperation with CEMAP and Reality.iDNES.cz. (source: Hypoindex.cz, 30 Aug 2026)
- My own gross rental yield calculation for Brno: rent of CZK 447/m² per month against a Brno offered flat price of CZK 134,685/m² (July 2026) works out at a gross annual yield of roughly 4.0 % — that is before tax, management costs, repairs and vacancy. The net figure is usually considerably lower. Price figure: (Hypoindex.cz, 21 Aug 2026)
- Legislation: Act No. 129/2026 Coll., amending the Housing Support Act (No. 175/2025 Coll.), is effective from 1 September 2026. The agenda passes to the Czech Labour Office, advisory services are provided by municipal authorities of municipalities with extended powers, and "housing contact points" are abolished. Section 13(2) lists who may request entry in the register, including people granted asylum or subsidiary protection, long-term EU residents holding a Czech long-term residence permit, and people entitled to equal treatment under EU law. (source: Collection of Laws, zakonyprolidi.cz)
- Prague's new zoning plan: in force from 1 September 2026, the first in more than 25 years, with capacity for up to 350,000 new flats. In a survey by the Association for Real Estate Market Development (ARTN), almost 70 % of respondents expect a positive impact, 94 % see a benefit for brownfields and over 80 % for the supply of new housing. Experts expect a visible effect in two to eight years, most commonly around four. (source: Hypoindex.cz, 27 Aug 2026)
A side note: the Czech National Bank published no new interest rate decision last week — it last left rates unchanged on 6 August 2026. The Financial Administration issued no press release, and none of the Constitutional Court rulings announced in week 34 concerned real estate, leases or the land registry. Apart from the housing support amendment mentioned above, no regulation with a direct impact on the property market appeared in the Collection of Laws.
Thanks for reading. And once more: to everyone starting school tomorrow — have a great first day. 🎒 See you next week over whatever the market brings.
— Pavel Maloušek, Realiťák Brno