Mortgage rates 5.79% in Brno – Real Estate Week 12 Oct 2026

Welcome to another Real Estate Week — my Monday look back at what happened on the Czech property market, with a focus on Brno and South Moravia.

Last week belonged to one number: Czech mortgage rates in October 2026 jumped to 5.79%, with six percent now in sight. For anyone buying or selling in Brno, or facing the end of a fixed-rate period, that is story number one.

The second story is a good one, and it is local: South Moravia has started almost twice as many flats this year as last. I also add one practical point for buyers — how to get your mortgage assessed before you find a flat. All the hard numbers are at the end.

Czech mortgage rates in October 2026: 5.79% and six percent in sight

Mortgages have become more expensive for the seventh month in a row, but this time it was not a matter of a few hundredths. The average offered rate rose from 5.51% to 5.79% in a single month. Since the March low that is almost a full percentage point.

In money terms: on a CZK 3.5 million mortgage over 25 years you pay roughly CZK 1,850 a month more than in March. That is no longer cosmetic; it is a line in the family budget.

What is interesting is how banks are raising rates. Not evenly:

Long fixed-rate periods are rising fastest. Ten years of certainty now costs more than six percent.
One-year fixes are being kept lower by some banks, so they have something to attract clients with.

A lower rate on a one-year fix does not mean a cheaper mortgage. It means you carry the risk of further increases, not the bank — and in a year you negotiate again, whatever the rates are then.

End of a fixed-rate period in 2026: who is hit hardest

This year a huge volume of mortgages from the cheap-money era reaches the end of its fixed-rate period. According to the Czech National Bank it is hundreds of billions of crowns, and the original rate on these loans averaged around three percent. The jump to today's level hurts — the central bank expects the affected households' instalments to rise by almost two thousand crowns a month on average.

And it does not end this year. An even larger volume of mortgages will reset over the next two years, although for those the jump will be less steep.

What it means for buyers

Waiting for cheaper mortgages makes no sense this year; that scenario is gone. What does make sense is to talk to several banks. Offers differ, and think carefully about how much certainty you need from your fixed-rate period and how much you want to pay for it.

What it means for sellers

Every increase lowers your buyers' ceiling. Same family, same income — and a loan a few hundred thousand crowns smaller than in spring. A price that worked in March may not work today. Anyone pricing by spring sales in their building will be waiting.

Want to know what your flat or house can fetch at today's rates? I will work it out from real completed sales in your neighbourhood.

Housing construction in South Moravia: almost twice as many flats started

Now the better news. Almost four thousand flats were started in the Czech Republic in August, two fifths more than a year earlier. And Petr Dufek, chief economist at Banka CREDITAS, added the sentence that matters most to us: construction is being pulled up by the South Moravian Region, where the number of flats started this year has almost doubled year on year. Prague is growing too, but noticeably more slowly.

Before we celebrate: a flat started is not a flat finished. From excavation to keys it takes years, and the number of completed flats in August was actually slightly lower than last year. Brno prices will not feel this tomorrow.

What is already changing is the mood. A developer with a project under way and three competitors building next door negotiates differently from a developer who is alone in the area.

For buyers: with new builds in and around Brno there is more to choose from and more room to negotiate — on price, parking and payment schedules.

For sellers of older flats: look at what is being built around you. If two hundred new flats will be completed next door in two years, it is better to sell before them than alongside them.

Mortgage pre-approval in the Czech Republic: how it works

At today's rates it pays to reverse the order. Not "I find a flat and then ask how much the bank will lend", but a figure from the bank first, then the search. A good overview was published last week, and one point from it is worth remembering: the word "pre-approved" covers three different things.

Indicative offer — a figure to give you an idea. Nobody verified anything; it carries no weight.
Pre-approval (modelling) — the bank has seen your income and the credit registers. It has not committed to anything, though, and will go through everything again at the real application.
Mortgage without a property — a signed loan agreement with a guaranteed rate, to which the flat is added later. Four banks offer it, and it is not free: there is a fee, and you pay even if you end up buying nothing.

The bank lends against the appraised value, not the purchase price. If the valuer puts the flat lower than what you are paying, you cover the difference yourself. A pre-approved amount is a ceiling — not a promise.

Between pre-approval and signing, do nothing to spoil it: no new loan, lease, credit card or change of job. A probation period reliably lowers your creditworthiness.

💡 Tip of the week: Does your fixed-rate period end next year? Do not wait for the bank's letter a few weeks before the end. Ask two or three banks for offers well in advance — banks will be competing for mortgages with expiring fixes in the coming years, and whoever comes early has something to choose from.

In brief: the Building Act and a tax on investment flats

The Building Act amendment has been signed by the President. The Ministry of Regional Development is now preparing implementing regulations and the transition to a new state building administration together with municipalities and professional chambers. Two things matter to anyone building: authorities are supposed to decide the same way everywhere, and authorised inspectors will newly be able to issue occupancy decisions themselves. Exactly when this reaches building in Brno will depend on the implementing regulations.
A higher tax on investment flats is only a debate so far. There is no proposal and nobody knows whom it would affect or how. Do not sell or buy a rental flat because of headlines.

Did you know? How many square metres of a Brno flat one salary buys

💡 Did you know? At viewings I keep hearing the same sentence: "We both earn well, so why doesn't it add up?" It does add up. Just not the way people imagine.

A calculation published last week says it bluntly. Take the average gross salary in South Moravia and the average price of an older flat. The result: one month's salary buys roughly half a square metre. Not a room. Not a kitchen. A piece of the hallway — and that is before tax.

Only Prague is worse in the whole country. South Moravia is second from the bottom, behind both the Olomouc and Central Bohemian regions.

One thing about it is still good: over the past year it has barely got worse here. Elsewhere it has, and badly. Cheap regions are catching up with the expensive ones. We are already at the top.

For a seller this means an unpleasant but useful truth. A buyer in Brno is not stingy. They are at their ceiling. The bank has calculated what they can carry and they cannot go above it even if they wanted to. Haggling is then not a game; it is arithmetic.

What to do about it: Before you agree to a reservation, ask to see how the buyer's financing is arranged. Not "the bank said it should be fine", but creditworthiness assessed in black and white. A buyer with a slightly lower offer and a mortgage in place is usually a better deal than one with a higher offer and hope.

What does it mean for foreigners on the Czech real estate market?

Nothing new specifically for foreigners this week — the same rules apply for Czech, EU and non-EU citizens.

One of this week's topics is still worth a note if you are an expat. Getting your creditworthiness assessed before you start looking matters even more for foreign buyers, because banks often set extra conditions for foreign applicants. Ask the bank which of the three kinds of "pre-approval" described above you are actually getting.

The evergreen basics still hold:

Anyone can buy. Since 2011 there is no restriction based on citizenship or residence for buying flats, houses or land in the Czech Republic. A non-EU citizen with no Czech residence permit can buy a flat in Brno on the same terms as a Czech buyer. Agricultural and forest land has its own rules, so check before you buy.
Mortgages are a different story. Banks are free to set their own conditions and they do differentiate. EU citizens usually get close to Czech terms; non-EU applicants are often asked for a permanent or long-term residence permit, a longer income history in the Czech Republic, and a bigger deposit. Rates have now risen for seven months in a row, so compare several banks.
Income in a foreign currency is a handicap. Czech mortgages are in CZK. If you earn in euros or dollars, banks tend to discount that income and you carry the exchange-rate risk on every instalment.
Renting works the same for everyone. The Civil Code protects tenants equally. Ask for a written lease, a handover protocol with photos, and a receipt for the deposit.
Always verify with a Czech lawyer and your bank. Rules on residence, taxation of rental income and the mechanics of escrow accounts change, and your personal situation matters more than any general article. I can recommend people in Brno who work with foreign clients regularly.

For those who like numbers

Mortgage rates (Swiss Life Hypoindex, October 2026)

Average offered rate: 5.79% (September 5.51%, i.e. +0.28 percentage points).
March 2026: 4.89% — up 0.90 percentage points in seven months.
Average rates by fixed-rate period, loans up to 80% LTV: 1 year 5.42%, 3 years 5.53%, 5 years 5.84%, 10 years 6.35%.
Above 80% LTV: 1 year 5.71%, 3 years 5.84%, 5 years 6.15%, 10 years 6.61%.
Model mortgage of CZK 3.5 million over 25 years: instalment at 4.89% about CZK 20,240, at 5.79% about CZK 22,095 (a difference of roughly CZK 1,855 a month).
Source: Hypoindex.cz

Mortgage refixing (Czech National Bank analysis, as cited by Hypoindex)

2026: roughly CZK 470 billion of mortgages will be refinanced or refixed, with an original average rate of about 3.2%. Affected households' instalments will rise by about CZK 1,900 a month on average, i.e. roughly 15%.
2027: roughly CZK 530 billion; 2028: at least CZK 600 billion. The original rate on these loans averages about 4.3%.
Source: Hypoindex.cz

Housing construction (August 2026)

Flats started in the Czech Republic: 3,922, +42.3% year on year. Flats completed: 2,852, −3.0% year on year.
Building permits: 5,684 (+1.4%); floor area of newly permitted buildings +20.2%.
Construction output: −1.4% year on year (building construction +5.9%, civil engineering −12.3%).
Source: Czech Statistical Office — Construction, August 2026
Since the start of the year 36% more flats have been started than last year, almost 44,000 on an annualised basis; the South Moravian Region almost doubled year on year, Prague almost +13%. Source: Petr Dufek, chief economist, Banka CREDITAS, via Hypoindex.cz

Mortgage without a property (as of October 2026; terms change)

ČSOB: 9 months to find a property; fee CZK 9,900; flat charge of CZK 9,900 if not drawn.
Raiffeisenbank: 23 months; fee CZK 4,900; flat charge of CZK 29,900 if not drawn.
Komerční banka: up to 36 months; fee CZK 4,900; 5% of the undrawn amount if not drawn.
UniCredit Bank: 12 months, up to 80% LTV; fee CZK 2,900; flat charge of CZK 10,000 if not drawn.
Czech National Bank limit: LTV of at most 80%, or 90% for applicants under 36. Example: CZK 6 million pre-approved covers a CZK 7.5 million flat at 80% LTV; if the appraisal comes in at CZK 7 million, the bank lends CZK 5.6 million.
The bank's current price list is always decisive. Source: Jiří Havlásek, via Hypoindex.cz

Affordability of older flats (first half of 2026)

South Moravian Region: average price of an older flat CZK 93,211 per m², average gross salary CZK 47,931, i.e. 0.51 m² per monthly salary; year-on-year change in affordability −0.2% (the smallest of all regions).
Prague: CZK 139,842 per m², salary CZK 63,022, 0.45 m² (−2.3%).
Olomouc Region 0.59 m², Central Bohemian Region 0.60 m².
Ústí Region: CZK 43,851 per m², salary CZK 44,880, 1.02 m² (−22.0%, the biggest deterioration).
The figure is for the whole region, not Brno alone, and uses gross salary.
Source: REMAX analysis (data from REMAX, OctopusPro and the Czech Statistical Office), via Hypoindex.cz

Legislation and other items

Building Act amendment: following the President's signature, the Ministry of Regional Development met municipalities, businesses and professional chambers on 7 October 2026 to discuss implementing regulations and the transition to a state building administration under the Office for Territorial Development (Úřad rozvoje území). Authorised inspectors are newly to be able to issue occupancy decisions and permit early use of a building for up to three years. Source: Ministry of Regional Development, texts and progress at novystavebnizakon.gov.cz.
Higher taxation of investment flats: so far only political talk with no specific proposal; see the commentary by Evžen Korec (EKOSPOL) on Hypoindex.cz.
Inflation: according to the Czech Statistical Office's flash estimate, consumer prices rose 2.5% year on year in September. Source: Czech Statistical Office
Nothing directly affecting the sale, purchase or rental of property was published last week in the Collection of Laws or by the Financial Administration.

If you are buying, selling or just want to know what your flat can fetch at today's mortgage rates in Brno or South Moravia, get in touch. The first consultation is free and commits you to nothing.

Pavel Maloušek, Realiťák Brno