Author Archives: Jindřich Svačina

If you became a property owner at any time during 2022, you are required to file a real estate tax return by January 31, 2023.

The tax return is only filed once after the property is acquired/sold/changed. Thereafter, you will automatically receive information on the amount of tax to be paid each year.

The real estate (property) tax return is filed,

If you no longer own the property (you have donated, sold or otherwise disposed of it), you must notify the tax office (see below).

No tax return is filed,

WHERE THE REAL ESTATE TAX RETURN IS FILED

The return is filed with the tax office in the county in which the property being declared is located. If you have multiple properties in different counties, you file one separate return for each county (properties within a county are on one return).

REAL ESTATE TAX DUE FOR 2023

Real property tax on real property under 5,000 is due by May 31, 2023.

Real estate tax over CZK 5,000 is due:

ON WHICH REAL ESTATE TAX IS PAYABLE

The subject of the immovable property tax is land registered in the Land Registry, taxable buildings and taxable units in the territory of the Czech Republic.

The real estate tax consists of:

For the determination of the real estate tax for 2023, the status as at 1 January 2023 is decisive. Changes that occur during 2023 will be reflected in the tax return for 2024.

Recommendation. This will give you the information you need quickly and easily.

HOW TO FILE YOUR TAX RETURN

1. ELECTRONICALLY VIA THE TAX ADMINISTRATION PORTAL

We recommend filing your real estate tax return electronically via the Electronic Filing for the Tax Administration application on the website www.mojedane.cz under Electronic Filings for the Tax Administration – Electronic Forms – Real Estate Tax.

Inexperienced users can use the Real Estate Tax Return Wizard application, i.e., click on the FILL FROM GUIDE button. This guide will guide you through the completion of the tax return step by step using guided questions.

Experienced users can then use the electronic real estate tax return form, i.e. click on the Real Estate Tax Return button.

When completing the real estate tax return, we recommend logging into the so-called Online Tax Office at www.mojedane.cz, through which you can access the Tax Information Box Plus (DIS+) and use its functionalities to facilitate the completion of the tax return.

In particular, through DIS+ it is possible to make submissions to the tax authorities without the taxpayer having to have a qualified certificate for electronic signature or a data box. You can log in to the online tax office via the so-called Citizen Identity, i.e. by electronically verifying your identity. This can be done using an electronic ID card with an activated chip, the MojeID service or, for example, via the Banking IDentity project. Most major banks already offer Internet banking login. For more information on how to log in to the “online financial office” via Citizen Identity, please follow this link>>

As mentioned above, in DIS+ it is possible to make submissions to the tax authorities, to get an overview of the status of personal tax accounts, information about documents filed in the tax authorities’ files, as well as to use the new function for pre-filling the real estate tax return based on the data from the last tax return.

2.      FILL IN MANUALLY, SEND BY POST OR DELIVER IN PERSON

If you prefer to complete the tax return manually, you can download the form on the Revenue’s website and complete it by hand. Send the completed tax return by post to the local tax office or deliver it in person.

The tax return form can also be obtained from all tax offices and their local offices. You can find a complete list here:

https://www.financnisprava.cz/cs/kontakty.

3.      SEND VIA DATA BOX

If you have a data box, you can send your tax return by data message.

It is available for download in PDF format on the website of the Tax Administration (http://www.financnisprava.cz) in the Tax Forms menu. The direct link is as follows:

https://www.financnisprava.cz/cs/danove-tiskopisy/databaze-aktualnich-danovych-tiskopisu

For more information on how to complete the tax return, please refer to the completion instructions available at the following link: https://www.financnisprava.cz/cs/danove-tiskopisy/databaze-aktualnich-danovych-tiskopisu

AND WHAT ABOUT OPTING OUT OF PROPERTY TAX?

In this matter, Section 13a(9) of Act No. 338/1992 Coll., on Real Estate Tax, states:

If a person who was a taxpayer of the real estate tax has lost the status of a taxpayer because during the tax period his ownership or other rights to all real estate in the territorial district of the same tax administrator, which were subject to the real estate tax (e.g. when he sells all the real estate or the real estate has ceased to exist), he is obliged to notify the tax administrator of this fact no later than 31 January of the following tax period.

HOW TO OPT OUT OF PROPERTY TAX

The law does not prescribe a form of filing for deregistration, nor has a specific form been issued. This fact may be communicated to the locally competent tax administrator in the following ways:

1. ELECTRONICALLY ON THE PORTAL OF THE TAX ADMINISTRATION

On the portal of the Tax Administration Mojedane.cz in the section → Electronic submissions for the tax administration → Electronic forms → General documents, fill in the form general document in which you write that you are opting out of the real estate tax and specify the real estate that you no longer own.

You can submit the form directly from the Tax Administration portal. Verification takes place via the Data Box or a citizen’s identity (e.g. bank identity or e-government mobile key, etc.).

2. BY (E)MAILING

Send a letter indicating that you are no longer a property taxpayer.

Sample letter for deregistration:

Addressed to:
To the Tax Office
Address of the local tax office

Subject: Withdrawal of real estate tax

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hereby give you notice that I sold my property on …… …… (please copy the definition of property from the purchase agreement)

I hereby opt out of real estate tax.

Jindrich Svacina

permanently residing at……

Sources: www.remaxalfa.cz, www.penize.cz, www.financnisprava.cz, www.kurzy.cz

The sale of the house in Lidman town ended up being a coveted success, but looking back on the whole deal, I can confidently say that it was one of the most difficult transactions I have had the opportunity to deal with. And how did it all start in the first place?

Every real estate story is unique. Many people who don’t have a greater understanding of the business may think that our job is to take pictures of a property (often by phone), advertise it and wait for a buyer to come along. The truth is that this represents only a few percent of everything. And that’s not even mentioning how to handle a quality promotion. If a real estate broker is fully committed to real estate, he or she is essentially functioning not only as a salesperson working with a strong legal department, but also as a marketer, sometimes a financial advisor and, if I may say so, a therapist/psychologist who must properly empathize with the needs of clients and, based on that, find the most ideal solution for them in a given situation. And the necessary basis for everything is communication. Not everyone has to be an extrovert right away, but there is definitely a need to be in regular contact with everyone involved and to respond to unexpected changes. This story just underlines everything.

I met the client (seller) and his partner at a viewing of another house I had listed. Even though it didn’t meet their expectations, we talked about their situation and came to the conclusion that they would need to sell their house as well. We agreed that I would come and take a look at it, assess the situation and maybe we could work something out. When we later got in touch to discuss a possible sale price and other details, the client decided to use my services, with the understanding that we would wait until the rest of the snow was gone so that my team and I could get to work. And because it’s a unique house, we really took the time to make a video. The filming then included barbecues, climbing the tower, archery… in short, we certainly weren’t bored. 😊

Then came the advertising, social media promotion and working with interested parties. The latter was not the easiest, as it required a slightly longer time investment than is normally necessary. I spoke with everyone on the phone, often for several dozen minutes, to prepare the person in advance. The reasons were the history of the house and its technical condition. To make a long story short, it was necessary to explain to everyone that relatives of the original owner of the house have a cottage located on a plot of land between three neighbours, including my client. However, they had lost access to the land as they simply did not want to deal with the council on this matter, even over many years when they had many opportunities to do so. They subsequently tried to negotiate it with each of the neighbours (again including my client) but got nowhere. So, they started to resolve it legally with the neighbour whose property is the easiest to get to their cottage. Fortunately for us, this was not our case, plus I had the solicitor check that we were safe. Since almost nothing is ever 100%, she gave me at least 99% clearance. In addition, then the meter for this house was located on someone else’s property, but the owner has always been absolutely great to deal with as far as access. It’s just that not everyone responded positively to this, and so we agreed with some before the viewing that the property would not be right for them.

It was March at the time. The conflict in Ukraine and slowly but surely rising interest rates made it difficult to sell. It was clear that the market was starting to cool down, but there was still plenty to work with. The house went on the market for 6.000.000 CZK, but there were noticeably fewer interested parties compared to last year. Some would finance with cash and some with a mortgage, but those who did were planning to take advantage of the fixed interest. In the end, we agreed with just such an interested party. And within two weeks of advertising, we had a reservation. The client was thrilled, so was I, and the buyer was looking forward to taking possession of the house with her husband in the coming months. But what made this transaction even more special was that, in addition to the mortgage, the money acquired from the buyers’ house being sold was to form part of the financing. Therefore, even though everything looked promising at the beginning, the sale gradually started to drag on.

The reservation contract was signed for three and a half months. During that time, the buyers stopped working with their unsuccessful cooperating real estate agent and embarked on the sale on their own. It wasn’t that we couldn’t get along, but unfamiliarity with the location, little time and the extreme distance unfortunately were simply against it. Fortunately, new people started to contact them slowly, but we were running out of precious time. Then other personal matters began to weigh on my client and the sale had to be postponed as soon as possible. And so we also reached a point where we were deciding whether to go ahead with the sale when the situation had not moved at all in the last few months. It was just apparent by then that finding new buyers who would fall in love with the house like those we were dealing with would be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Interest rates had risen dramatically and the market seemed to have really frozen. When there was a buyer, it was mostly for properties up to about 3.000.000 CZK.

It was for this reason that it was clear that we had to bring this case to an end in any way we could, otherwise we could either drag the sale out even more if we started it again, or the client would probably have to accept a significantly lower purchase price. And while certainly not everyone would do that, it was the seller who suggested that if the buyers could manage to finance the house by the end of the year under certain conditions, they would be allowed to do so if all parties involved signed legalities that would make the seller as secure as possible and guarantee the aforementioned. Eventually, our wonderful attorney and I figured out how to handle the whole thing. It cost us several addendums, meetings with a notary, long negotiations with banks, financing in stages, arranging an extra loan, and most importantly, really strong nerves and some extra white hair to get it all done. But in the end, we did it. In the meantime, the buyers even managed to find a buyer for their house, although financing was not easy for them either. They’re all struggling with the same thing now. Either with too high interest rates on mortgages or with selling their own property to buy another.

As a result, we have arrived at the desired success. Our original plan to get everything done in a few weeks dragged on for several months. All in all, the sale took over half a year. But we were never going to give up. It was challenging, but if it was easy, it would be boring and everyone would be doing it. I hereby have to thank once again all those who lived through it with me, because without a concerted effort, keeping a positive attitude, and although it wasn’t always easy, keeping a cool head, we probably wouldn’t have made it to a successful finale. This was then made all the more beautiful when the selling client offered me a hug, and we haven’t stopped in touch since, and I’m confident that a truly long-lasting friendship will come out of this fierce business relationship. And that’s why I love this job so much, because even though it’s not always easy, the results it brings you are simply priceless…

If you too have been thinking about selling your property, or just are already dealing with some real estate matters, don’t hesitate to contact me at any time. We can have a good coffee, discuss your situation and find the most ideal solution together. And if we go into it together, as always, I’ll take care of everything so you don’t have to!

Selling the house in Bukovice town was an unforgettable experience. It was definitely one of the harder sales, although the truth is that there are not that many easy ones, even though it might seem at first glance that every sale is exactly the same. The reality, of course, is quite different. Whether because of the type of property, the location and local conditions, or the legal and technical condition of the property.

The house in Bukovice town is of an older date, i.e. we are talking about a period older than the First Republic. I admit that it was the First Republic that I got a bit carried away when I called the house a First Republic villa in the video. In the end, however, this dit not really matter, and as a bonus, this particular era of our country became the topic of conversation between me and a commenter on Facebook who came across my ad regarding the house I was selling, and who fortunately was one of those people with whom one could have a fine, positive debate on this social network. Which was a nice change, because in the case of promoted properties in this environment it is usually the opposite.

However, even though the house had undergone a number of renovations over many years, it was necessary to acknowledge its drawbacks. Among them, for example, its location on a main and relatively busy road. However, one of its other disadvantages was the fact of a damp cellar due to the fact that the house was not properly insulated. And to make the sale even a little more difficult, we started it at a time of constant increases in mortgage interest rates and, along with that, an increasing decline in the number of potential buyers who would finance the house with a mortgage. However, the fact that the house is relatively large, i.e. more demanding to heat, also played a role, and this type of property, alongside flats on housing estates, has become the most affected group of properties offered for sale in recent months.

Of course, we have not underestimated the preparation. So we made a trip of about two hours from Prague with the team, so that the home stager Denisa Stastkova could use her skills to highlight the house’s maximum potential, while the cameraman and photographer, Jordan Dimov, documented all her work. Together with them, Tomas Babiak was also involved, taking care of the floor plans and 3D virtual tours. When everything was ready, the sale began. However, there were not many potential buyers, although in addition to advertising on real estate servers, the marketing specialist David Stasek, who promotes properties for sale on social media in order to raise awareness of the fact that a particular property in a given location is for sale, did his best. Social networks are not to be underestimated, because despite the large number of so-called “haters” they have a huge reach, and if one dispenses with the useless comments of people who obviously have nothing better to do, the truth remains that one advertising campaign can reach tens of thousands of potential buyers.

But time passed and with it the cooling of the market was more and more noticeable. The worst period came in the fall (2022) when sales perhaps came to a complete halt. This was not just my case. The vast majority of colleagues (whether from the REMAX network or from other offices) were experiencing the same thing. And we had to make a price concession because in a situation where constant paid advertising on soc. networks, regular topping on real estate servers and even banner ads, we could hardly go against the tide and fight the market that was experiencing a smooth downward trend (we are talking about tens of percent in terms of discounts compared to where property prices were at the turn of 2021 and 2022, i.e. at the real estate peak).

As far as tours are concerned, we have come to the conclusion that if people from Prague come, they won’t argue about the price at all, but the problem will be the distance from their families and friends. As for the locals, they won’t be willing to accept the price. Some of the tours were pleasant, some were too strange. One prospective buyer made us think so much by her behaviour that we had a technical report prepared, where the technical condition of the property was completely broken down in case she was interested in booking after all, so that she would not try to drag the owner through the courts in later years over possible so-called “hidden defects”. The message paid off in the end, however, because until then I had warned all the interested parties about the technical condition of the property, whereas since receiving this report I forwarded it to everyone before the inspection so that they would realistically know what they would eventually go into.

We didn’t give up. And in the end, we did the right thing. After several months of selling, we got a call from a buyer who came to see the house with his partner from Pilsen location, where they were planning to move from. We arranged the viewing for Sunday. Whether it was a coincidence or not, I have no idea, but I joked with him during the phone call that I had made the vast majority of sales thanks to the Sunday viewings. After the tour was completed, the buyer called me within a couple of days, confirmed his interest, and made sure to remind me that I lived up to my promise to sell on Sunday.

After that, things went relatively smoothly. After the reservation was signed, the purchase contract was signed and then happened one of the fastest handovers I have ever experienced, because the buyers had planned everything so that they would move from Pilsen straight to Bukovice. After the handover, we had a really great late lunch with the sellers, and later on we started another real estate adventure, because after the sale of the house was done, my clients started to deal with the purchase of a new home.

What a great story! But as this story shows, you really must not underestimate any real estate transaction. And even when everything seems to be well grasped, circumstances can still change so dramatically that you can’t fight them, but then you have to adapt, even if it’s not always what you’d wish for. Therefore, if you are going to sell your property as well, call me and let’s consult everything thoroughly. Then I will take care of everything so you don’t have to!

Summer is over and Prague is busy again! Even before the summer, however, the market situation was already changing, with rentals gaining momentum while sales were not as fast as they used to be in recent years. At that time, almost everything that was advertised was sold, and this situation lasted until the beginning of spring this year (we are more or less talking about the time before the conflict in Ukraine). Things started to change with the rise in mortgage interest rates, which caused a gradual cooling of the market in terms of sales. During the spring I managed to reserve a house for sale in Lidman town quite quickly, but since then, i.e. since March, the drop in demand has been more and more noticeable, with some stagnation in the summer. That’s not to say that there have been no sales, but we’re definitely talking about a much slower process now than we’ve been used to for the last two years in particular. There are, of course, several reasons why there has been such a turnaround. But to understand everything, even for someone who is not very familiar with the subject, it is necessary to look back again a few months into the past.

First of all, it should be mentioned that interest rates on mortgage loans began to rise more noticeably at the beginning of 2022 in connection with the fight against rising inflation. The Czech National Bank thus had to stop lending so-called “cheap money”, which, among other things, caused the growth of the real estate bubble in the Czech Republic in the first place. Another reason for the rise in prices was one of the steps taken by the former government to abolish the tax on the acquisition of real estate, which accounted for 4% of the purchase price. In retrospect, it is difficult to judge whether this was a bad move or not, as the main idea behind this act was to support the economy after the first hit of the covid pandemic. However, it undoubtedly played its part. However, in the context of the ever-worsening national debt, the aforementioned inflation gradually began to increase, which had an impact on the prices of almost all goods. Rising inflation basically means that the same amount of money buys fewer goods. In other words, money loses value. And since the normal inflation rate used to be around 3% a year and suddenly climbed to double digits in a matter of months (as recently as August 2022, it was 17.2% – see www.cnb.cz), the CNB decided to pull the trigger by gradually raising the base interest rate at more or less regular monthly intervals. And here it is worth mentioning that after today’s meeting of the CNB Bank Board (it is Thursday 29.09.2022) the base interest rate was left at 7%, and the CNB wants to act against inflation until it is fully under control, which should mean taming the inflation rate to 2%. Thus, we are probably talking about staying in this state over the next year or two. If I were to summarise this in a nutshell, over the last two years we have gone from property sales at so-called auctions, where many people were overpaying by hundreds of thousands (and largely thanks to cheap mortgages) to a situation where mortgages are now noticeably more expensive, which has led to a fall in purchasing power and therefore a cooling of the market for property sales.

Another significant matter that has contributed to the change in property market conditions has been the onset of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. And to make matters worse, the other thing to deal with has been a harsh rise in energy prices (electricity and gas). As an example, I can give one of my cases where a supplier raised my client’s advance payments from about 2.500,-/month to 12.500,-/month because the client went to Innogy as a Supplier of Last Resort after the collapse of Bohemia Energy. Specifically here we are talking about an increase of 500%, which for many can mean economic murder. Therefore, putting everything together, we can draw several conclusions.

The first is that the time to sell is generally getting longer because there are now noticeably fewer bidders responding to properties being sold. They generally finance either in cash. Exceptionally, they also use mortgages, but in this case it is usually for properties worth up to about 4.000.000 CZK or for mortgages where the interested parties were still able to pre-negotiate the loan on better terms, e.g. at 2%, which is not realistic today. Alternatively, we can also meet those who, despite the pitfalls of today’s times, still apply for a mortgage with an interest rate of around 6%, but there is really a minimum of such people… And along with this, I also meet another form of financing, which has recently become more and more common, namely the sale of a property in order to buy another. Here, many brokers can see the potential of gaining new business, as those interested parties who have not yet started selling and are only at the stage of looking for a new home, in the vast majority entrust the sale of their property to the broker who sells the one they would eventually like to buy.

But there is a certain pitfall here, because if you think about the possible effects in the longer term, brokers or self-sellers can get into a tricky situation, because if the property is approached again by those who first need to sell, then such a “domino” (meaning the linking of several deals on each other) may not lead to success. Last year, it was still relatively safe to bring two interdependent cases to a close, but as is obvious, it is a much harder discipline today.

The second conclusion is that property prices are stagnating and even working with advertised amounts can already be observed. This is due to the increasing number of properties for sale, in addition to weak buying power. However, this is also inherently caused by expensive mortgages, as many people have had their mortgages fixed for a certain period of time, some of whom have already or will be coming to the end of the interest rate fixation on their previously agreed mortgage. And if these individuals had a fixed rate of, say, 1.5% and are now facing or will soon face a rate of around 5.5% – 6%, we are talking about an increase in the amount of the payment in the order of several thousand per month (if not outright tens of thousands depending on the purchase price of the property in question). We can therefore expect to see a lot of new properties for sale gradually appearing on the market, but if demand is not high, then there will probably be a gradual lowering of prices in order to actually sell the property in question. If the seller has to get out of debt to the bank, for example, he will not have many other options, unless of course he is lucky and his property impresses a particular creditworthy buyer with something specific.

But since we are encountering other types of transactions in the real estate market, it is appropriate to write a few more lines on the situation with rentals. These have started to pick up again after a pause of about two years. They were basically stagnant during the crash and were getting cheaper, as is now the case with sales. Particularly in the big cities, many people needed to fill empty flats (remember that thousands of flats originally intended for short-term rental became available after the covid hit), and we could therefore see prices falling by thousands of crowns. The biggest breakthrough, however, came in recent months in connection with the war in Ukraine, which brought with it a wave of refugees from that region. Even before the war, prices had already started to rise slowly as life gradually began to return to the country as the pandemic faded. But it was only after the outbreak of the conflict that things really picked up. Therefore, just as it used to be common for twenty bidders to bid for one property to be sold, five of whom bid a substantial amount extra and one of these bidders won the auction, we now see this in the case of rentals. And this applies not only to the number of people who come to view, but even to the auction in question. What is really happening is that potential tenants are bidding higher amounts in terms of monthly rent in order to outbid others and increase their chances of signing a lease. It is therefore interesting to see how much and how quickly the whole market situation has turned around. In other words, property prices have been rising drastically over the last few years while rents have been cooling, whereas now rental prices are rising, purchase prices of properties being sold are stagnating and we may even be seeing a reduction, and in Prague we are talking about 10% – 15%. Personally, I have a fresh experience when I advertised an apartment for rent in a family house (it was a ground floor unit) worth 15.000,-/month + fees (i.e. in total it was about 18.100,-/month without internet). On Sunday evening I let the apartment out to the world and on Monday after lunch I had to take it off the offer through unceasing calls from interested parties. And within a week the lease was signed and the keys to the apartment were handed over. One might wonder how this is possible when there are no more crowds of people from Ukraine coming here. That is true, but there are those who have settled in the Czech Republic with the understanding that they will not return home. And now these people, who have been using asylum either in institutions designed for this purpose or with citizens of the Republic, want to find their own places to live, which logically means a noticeably increased demand, i.e. high prices. And we are now talking purely about renting, without calculating the cost of utilities.

In conclusion, the question is, where is this all going? Well, it is hard to say, but even if we are in a worse economic situation now, there is always growth again after that. We will probably have to cut back in some way for a while, but as an eternal optimist I believe that one day better times will come again. Personally, I just hope it will be sooner rather than later. One thing is certain, however, and that is that we have been experiencing extremes in recent years. But, as in any industry, real estate is a normal economic sinusoid, where for a while properties go on sale, but then demand goes into decline. This is the case for both sales and rentals. But the main thing is not to lose your mind, because even if it is not every day that is bright, with the right approach in the given market circumstances it is possible and of course necessary to do the absolute maximum for clients. Thinking about the right sales strategy is definitely in order, but the most important thing is to communicate properly and honestly with everyone. The days of making sales easier have been gone for a while, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. There is no such word in my vocabulary, so if perhaps you too are struggling with real estate matters and are not sure how to properly grasp the issue at this time, drop me a message or give me a call and together we will find the most ideal solution. I will make sure that you do not have to worry at all! Have a great day!

The sale of the apartment on Zavadilka housing estate in Ceske Budejovice is over. It was an incredibly rewarding real estate episode, which is worth sharing in detail. It shows that in the real estate market you can really encounter anything, that there is no shortage of coincidences, but that even if you keep believing, success will come sooner or later.

The background to the whole event is that at the turn of the year, a long-time friend approached me to ask if I would help her and her partner sell their apartment if they decided to do so. I agreed, of course, but had to wait a little longer for final instructions. The point of the sale was that the clients would use the proceeds to buy their dream house near their hometown of Jindrichuv Hradec. The final decision was made in February 2022 and the sale was given the green light. We put together the necessary materials with the team and shortly afterwards the sales process began. It should be noted that it was not as easy as it might have seemed at first, because even though it was a really beautiful apartment, it was already clear that the market conditions had begun to change through the conflict in Ukraine and through the rising interest rates on mortgages.

The first viewings went quickly, but we still couldn’t find the right buyer. To make matters worse, the ideal house to buy had already come up, but we needed to at least reserve the apartment for sale first to get things moving in the right direction. But that would be to avoid further entanglements. First, there was a similar apartment for sale in the same building that had a private garage. And a competing broker put it on the market for several hundred thousand cheaper. The only thing that could have flattered us was that, according to my home stager, he tried to copy the apartment’s refinement through its promotion, in order to further increase the chances of attracting more buyers besides dumping the price. Another pitfall would then seem to be that the house the clients wanted to buy was booked by someone else. But the last imaginary nail in the coffin was the news from the client’s employer who told her that he would not allow her to work from home after coming back from maternity leave, which she had originally counted on, and so her plans to buy a house in the Jindrichuv Hradec region fell apart. It was basically decided that if my clients were going to buy a house somewhere, it had to be in Ceske Budejovice and its surroundings, where prices are of course significantly higher than in the Jindrichuv Hradec area, for it to make sense.

And that’s why we had to meet to figure out what to do next. I asked myself in my mind whether it was worth selling further, since on the one hand the coveted property had been reserved, on the other hand we had to focus on a different and more expensive location, and on top of that the potential buyers at that moment probably preferred the cheaper flat next door, which is why the demand for ours had dropped. It didn’t seem as nice as the one I offered, but it must be admitted that price is what determines the speed of sale. But neither I nor the clients wanted to give up. They believed that there would be another house to buy, because that was the way it was supposed to be. And if not right away, they still had the option to go live with family after the sale and look for a house on the fly. And then I personally wanted to see it through at any cost to make their dream come true.

It didn’t take long before everything seemed to start moving in the right direction. As expected, the second broker booked the apartment, but this ironically played into our hands. I was contacted by a lady who was looking for an apartment for her son in Zavadilka location, while it was already too late for the competitors through the aforementioned reservation. So we arranged a viewing, which was to take place in a few days. In the meantime, the client called me that she and her partner had found another house to buy that was even better than the original one. And that if the apartment could be booked, they would book the house. However, I was instructed that it had to be done at the asking price and not a penny less because that was the only way they could finance the house. I have to admit that this put me in a difficult situation, but that is part of why clients hire me. After all, the whole point of the real estate business is to negotiate a sale on the best possible terms for clients. So, the challenge was clear. And it was finally fulfilled during the tour! And so it was that within about two weeks, everything turned around, we were able to book the apartment at the asking price, and the clients were still working on booking the house. We were also a bit lucky in terms of speed, as the buyers financed in cash. But there was still one tricky issue to resolve.

The original plan was that if the clients found a property to buy, they would transfer the mortgage from their flat to another family flat or possibly directly to a new property. But this would be purely up to the seller to allow this, as it is the seller alone who can place a charge on their property, as they are the owner of the property at the time. And certainly not every seller is willing to do so. After all, it makes sense, because the seller is mortgaging thieir property at the time, and if the entire success depends on the prospective buyers selling their property to buy another, there are risks of failing to sell. In short, anything is possible in the market, and even if it looks promising at first, it can cool down, as we have seen in recent weeks, or a buyer of a property on which everything depends can have a sudden accident… There are more of these possibilities and associated risks. But as mentioned, we were lucky enough to have the buyer finance the apartment on Zavadilka housing estate in cash. And since we had a signed reservation, a deposit and basically only needed to sign the purchase contract, the owner of the desired house agreed to transfer the pledge directly to his house. The fact that he was in a hurry to sell himself through other downstream plans also played a role, so it all came together as best it could. This essentially meant a dramatic acceleration of the whole process. Everything still needed to be handled correctly legally, but our wonderful attorney Hana Grinacova prepared an excellent new purchase agreement that captured everything so that each party was as secure as possible.

And what was next? My clients, the buyers of the Zavadilka apartment and the sellers of the house just had to sign the appropriate purchase agreement, which included a provision that the funds would be sent from one attorney’s escrow to the other instead of to the sellers’ account. I.e. in the “first round” the transfer of ownership from my clients to the buyers of the apartment on Zavadilka (our interested party) was dealt with and in the “second round” the transfer of ownership from the owner of the house to my clients. And after several weeks of waiting, everyone got what they had been waiting for. The buyer got a condo for her son in her preferred location, the home seller had the security of money, and my clients bought their dream home. In the end, everything went very smoothly for how much was going on. And I am able to move on again because of this incredible experience.

So, if you too have been thinking about selling your property or know of someone who has, do not hesitate to contact me at any time. Together we will find the most ideal solution and then I will make sure that you have to worry about anything at all!

Conscription number

The conscription number is given before the slash and is the number that identifies each separate building of a permanent nature in the municipality. In the Czech Republic, conscription numbers are a type of house number. Compared to the orientational number, the conscription number is unique. The conscription numbers are not repeated for a specific part of the municipality. That is why they are also longer, sometimes up to five digits.

The conscription numbers are red plates with white numbers on the houses, usually including the name of the cadastral area. The conscription number is usually assigned after the building has been approved and is a prerequisite for registration in the cadastre. The building then bears the conscription number assigned to it permanently. A new building built on the site of a demolished building does not inherit a number but receives a new conscription number. The higher the number, the newer the building.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the landmark number is an additional number that is unique within a street or public space. It is assigned by the municipal authority, one at a time within a single public road or space. This can result in a single house having multiple landmark numbers – for example, if it faces a square and also faces a side street, it will have two landmark numbers. In other words, each building can then have as many landmark numbers as there are streets or squares around its walls.

The orientational number

It should be noted that the orientational number is not mandatory in the Czech Republic. Therefore, orientational numbers may not be found in all municipalities. On the other hand, the number may also include a letter (e.g. 2a, 8c) – this is for the sake of clarity and better orientation. You can recognize these numbers by the fact that they are written in white numerals on the blue plates, unless they are painted and individually produced.

Registration number

The registration number is used to identify buildings and structures that are used for occasional living and are not marked with a conscription number. This implies that they are not buildings intended for permanent habitation. Most often, cottages, cabins, other recreational buildings, etc. have a registration number. The registration number is again unique within the municipality, but the registration numbers form a separate number series, i.e. in the same part of the municipality there may be two buildings with the same number, one of which is descriptive and one registration. The plates on which the registration numbers are shown are colour-coded to differentiate them from both descriptive and indicative numbers (for example, for recreational buildings around Prague it is common to have a yellow plate with black numerals, whereas more recent registration numbers are often white on a green background).

Parcel number

A parcel number indicates a plot of land in a cadastral area. In each cadastral area, parcels are identified by numbers either in two numerical series, separately for land and building parcels, or in one numerical series, regardless of the type of land.

The parcel number is determined within the framework of the cadastral administration when the parcel is created and may be changed later (e.g. when cadastral territory boundaries are changed, when cadastral territories are merged or divided, etc.).

If you know the parcel number and the cadastral area, you can easily find out the area of the land, the owner of the land, whether the land is encumbered, the list of BSEU (Bonitated Soil Ecological Unit) and many other information.

Sources: www.remaxdelux.cz, www.ceskestavby.cz, www.svet-bydleni.cz, www.banky.cz, en.wikipedia.org, www.stavimbydlim.cz