How are people able to afford (new) houses?

26 comments

1. >How are people buying?

   That’s the neat part – we can’t.

2. Normal people don’t buy those 7-11 mil. houses.

   > What blows my mind evne more is that just 16% of Czech have a mortgage

   Because vast majority of Czech households already own their properties.

3. 1) You inherit or have rich family

   2) You win the lottery

   3) You live on the verge of poverty for decades and then buy a house for what you saved

   4) You make lots of money and save much faster than option above

   5) You take a morgage

   6) You don’t own anything

   These are your options

4. Boomers own. Millenials/genz either inherit or cant buy. With an exception if you have like top 1% income.

5. Or maybe, not everyone lives in Prague. And if you check other parts of the country, it is not that bad.

6. It was always like this. Young people here on reddit keep on questioning it, but even when the average salary was 15k, you could not buy a house on a mortgage alone.

   Mortgage is for families. If you and your wife got average salary, you are looking at 80-90 k and cheaper houses start to make sense.

7. They aren’t. It’s all bought by landlords who then hold it empty, increasing housing prices even more. Making their own property even more valuable. Ultimate wealth hack.

8. most people dont buy new houses like that but renovate old ones for like half the price. In prague people mostly rent

9. You are from a rich family, or a a doctor/lawyer/senior in IT with 10+years of experience.
   Average people don’t buy shit

10. Lets say, you have a wife and saved enough to take a mortgage. Average couple spend 1 whole income on mortgage and 1 income for everything else. Most of them cant saved much…

11. You study hard.
    You work hard.

    Then mommy and daddy pay for most of that shit.

    Then profit.

    Source: Most of my friends.

    Man, do I envy them.:D

12. 80% of population lives in their own property.

    [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/wdn-20211230-1](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/wdn-20211230-1)

    So you also have 80% probability you will inherit one from your parents/ grandparents/ siblings. It means you don’t need to take mortgage in that case unless you need to renovate the property.

    For example my friend’s situation – both grandparents have flats, parents have flat and cottage. When the first grandparents died, the older brother inherited their flat, sold it because it’s in diffenent city and used the money as a basis for a new house mortgage. When the other grandparents will die, the younger brother (friend) inherits their apt. When then parents die they will share another flat and cottage. So basically no need for mortgage at all. And this is not an extraordinary case,

13. My friend just build house 180m, for 6-7 milions. Second friend build bungalo for 5 milions.

    Buying finished house will always be much more expensive. Especialy near big cities. Also near big cities you will pay 3-4 milions just for land. But go little more far from city, and you can get one for 1 milion.

14. I got mortgage rate 2.09% (it will go back again), got property relatively cheaply from city because they wanted new development (but itcomes with lot of restrictions)
    Some money from family (~800k during four-five years) and saved like crazy.
    Now (after five years) we have almost finished house for ~11M including property and fence and a mortgage that has 28,5 years left to pay off

15. Well mortages are for a long time, very often 30 years! Most of the people having mortage didn’t get it last month. Between such high rates only being a reality for couple of years and how house prices have risen since around 2010, vast majority have mortage for few milions still fixed at little over 2% rate…

16. With an average salary you don’t. The absolute minimum whether being alone or in a couple at least 100 000 net.

    The era when middle class or lower middle class could afford a house or an apartment on their own is over as soon as the investors started using real estate for business ventures.

    These days you have to be upper middle class at least to get started.

17. They dont. We have one of the worst house crisis and it is getting worse with the war in Ukraine.

18. Have you tried going back in time and getting on the property ladder in 2002 and trading up from there? I bought a 100 sqm flat at Vyšehrad for like 2m back then.

19. That’s the neat part – we don’t.

20. Haha, we don’t.

21. Easy peasy: A software engineer marries his dentist sweetheart. In their mid-thirties, one earns 120k CZK per month and the other earns 90k CZK per month. After a few years, their combined earnings reach 350k CZK.

    A house for 10-15 million is easily within reach for them. The houses wouldn’t be selling for this much if people wouldn’t be able to afford it.

    I’m an exception, I was able to buy such a house while being single. No mortgage.

22. They don’t.

    Majority privatised their housing after the fall of communism, and either live there and pass to the descendants, or sell and buy new one paying the difference only. Whoever didn’t inherit no shit, well, sucks to be you (and me).

23. 150m2 house is huge, you can buy it only with you wife/husband, and only if one of the two has a very good salary. It’s an house for an IT guy with 1mln czk per year (so arount 70k per month after taxes) and the wife in some middle level management position that makes 50k per month after taxes

24. Yes, I’m also a foreigner debating that. I think I’m a high earner and still struggle to understand how can anyone buy anything, it would require significant sacrifice for me. I also won’t ever inherit anything, my family has more debts than assets.

    That said, just feels better to rent, I have been here ~5 years and kind of saved enough for the down payment (around 2m), but the mortgage rates are insane…

    I see flats of 8-10 mil, with a 2m down payment you pay like 40-50k a month. I currently live in a flat that is worth 12m+ and pay 22k in rent + 6k in services (2+1 76mts2 in Karlín).

    I tried to do some math, and it seems better to pay the rent + invest the rest. I also live more comfortably and in a better area than what I would be able to afford.

25. If I’d have to, I’d build with hemp crete. Warning: napkin math.

    – a small parcel to build your house on, 300 m2 minimum (1-1.5 million CZK)
    – a wooden post frame of the house (150-250k CZK)
    – rent at least 2 hectares, and plant hemp (40-60k CZK)
    – grow hemp, dry it, and make hurds (60k CZK).
    – make hempcrete (hurds, lime, water) and build the foundation, walls, and roof with it, 2 extra guys & 1 month should suffice (500k CZK)
    – roof, windows, doors, electrical, pipes, etc. (700k CZK)

    2.5-3 million CZK for a complete shell. No mortgage, though.

26. I’m 34 year old and bought 13M house on mortgage 2 years ago. Also income is 200k netto / month. Didn’t inherit anything, saved util i could make the 20% needed for mortgage.