Robert Špalek argues that the key to affordable housing lies not primarily in funding but in creating a proper legislative framework. He recommends bringing housing cooperatives into the picture. In his view, municipalities could act as founding members and land owners while avoiding the burden of property management. The idea is that commercial development and affordable housing serve fundamentally different purposes—profit maximization versus public service.
Robert Špalek is the chairman of the Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians Active in Construction (ČKAIT)
How do municipalities currently use their land ownership and what prevents them from dedicating more real estate to affordable housing projects?
We can only go by our own experiences with selected cases, as we don’t have a more detailed analysis available. However, in practice, we often find that cities and municipalities view land and property ownership primarily as a source of problems: they must address potential changes to the zoning plan, develop infrastructure, and if they consider building affordable housing, they must primarily manage the preparation and implementation of the construction itself, ideally within one electoral term. Relationships with potential local opposition and the mayor’s willingness to bear financial responsibility often play a decisive role.
If municipal rental apartments are involved, responsibility for the proper management of their operation and maintenance must be added. This is a really significant problem, and if the municipality doesn’t adequately control quality during construction, then new rental housing development may really not be worth it. That’s why we consider establishing a housing cooperative and contributing development land to it with building rights to be more appropriate.
Nevertheless, if I had to give a one-sentence answer: municipalities lack the capacity. However, this is not insurmountable – they can hire an external project manager for both preparation and implementation of construction who will solve everything based on the careful analysis of data, and a qualified evaluation of all the risks. The Czech Republic has hundreds of authorized experts in construction.
What are the most common pitfalls that local governments face when trying to develop affordable housing, and how can authorized engineers help overcome these challenges?
The foundation is to establish a strategic plan, define housing needs, number and structure of apartment sizes depending on whether they are intended for seniors, young families with children, or preferred professions. Plus prepare a volume study for the required number of apartments and their size. Authorized individuals can also help with defining requirements for construction quality, layout, accessibility, energy intensity, use of renewable energy sources… The same applies to defining requirements for the durability of materials used with an expected lifespan of at least 25 years. This is important not only for rental housing but also for housing financed by mortgage or cooperative share. The building should last without major modifications at least until it’s paid off.
Can these ideas work in a way that would truly help a significant number of Czechs without changes to the zoning system?
What we often encounter is the problem of exempting land from the agricultural land fund. The conversion of industrial or generally older buildings or complexes is also a persistent problem. And also longer timeframes for changing zoning plans. But another issue is crucial, which I’ve already mentioned: very careful data analysis. It should be noted that the problem of financially inaccessible housing concerns only a few localities or regions in the Czech Republic. In this respect, our situation is similar to many other European countries. It is also necessary to ensure that residential buildings are in line with the changing age structure of the population in individual settlements. This also applies to civic amenities. However, building affordable housing in the regions may not solve the inaccessibility in Prague, Brno, and the Central Bohemian Region.
If taxes continue to be distributed through a centralized system by the state, will municipalities have sufficient motivation to take on the risks associated with construction?
That’s a very good question. Subsidies are only associated with municipal rental housing. Personally, I appreciate the activity of the State Investment Support Fund, which provides qualified counselling to cities and municipalities free of charge. I also appreciate subsidies for responsible preparation of project plans and documentation. But as ČKAIT, we are convinced that legislative changes equalizing the conditions for establishing and operating housing cooperatives with unit owner associations could be much more effective. Moreover, cooperative housing, which has a tremendous tradition in the Czech Republic, is basically self-financing. And as such, it doesn’t have to burden public budgets. In addition, there is a great benefit in that cooperative members associate their housing with permanent residence. Thus, they are a benefit to the municipality or city both economically and in terms of activity.
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