Offer prices for flats in Prague, in the Czech Republic fell by -2.2% in Q4 2010, while in the rest of the country they fell by -0.9%. The figures were published by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO) which uses publicly available sources like under offer prices listed by estate agencies, when calculating average offer prices.

However, many local analysts believe that there could be a significant difference between the purchase price originally offered and the one that is actually paid when the transaction is completed. Unfortunately, there is a long delay between a property being sold and the data being released by the CSO. For example, the most recent data available is for properties sold in 2009.

In the Czech Republic the rate of decline in realized prices by these figures amounted to an average of 4.2 %, according to a report by CzechPoint101. The latest CSO data on the development of construction output in the Czech Republic shows that the number of started flats in October last year fell year-on-year by -25% to 2,023 flats, while the number of completed flats in October 2010 grew year-on-year by 11.5% to 3,495 units.

No surprise then that the real estate network, Century 21, has predicted that property prices in the Czech Republic will continue to fall in the coming months because of a lack of demand from buyers. The company expects prices to fall by 10-15% in the un-modern apartment blocks, but also warns that demand for new housing is not increasing either.

“This autumn should definitely be interesting for buying a new flat; a number of property developers will need to go to the edge of profitability in order to sell their newly-built flats. Prices can therefore reach their lowest possible level”, Jan Rosák, director of property development department at Century 21, told local media.