Finding somewhere to live in Prague

Where the flats actually are

Sreality carries the widest inventory, most of it posted by agencies. Bezrealitky is the owner-direct site and is where people go to avoid the commission, at the cost of a much thinner selection. Facebook groups move fastest and are also where most of the fraud lives. September is brutal because the student intake and the corporate intake collide in the same fortnight.

• Sreality for volume, Bezrealitky for owner-direct, Facebook groups for speed.
• 1+kk means one room with a kitchenette; 2+1 means two rooms plus a separate kitchen. The counting is of rooms, not bedrooms.
• Listings quoting a rent “včetně poplatků” include service charges; “bez poplatků” does not.

The money at signing

Expect the deposit (kauce), the first month's rent, and in most cases the agency commission (provize), which is customarily one month plus VAT and is charged to the tenant here. Czech law caps the deposit at three times the monthly rent including service charges, so anything above that is not enforceable. Ask for the total up-front figure in writing before you commit to a viewing schedule.

• Kauce: capped at three months' rent including service payments.
• Provize: typically one month's rent plus VAT, tenant-paid, legal and normal.
• Zálohy na služby: monthly advances for heating, water, lift and building services.
• Vyúčtování: the annual reconciliation, which returns money or demands more.

The contract and the accommodation confirmation

The nájemní smlouva should name the owner as they appear on the title, state the rent and the service advances separately, and set the notice period. Separately, non-EU arrivals are generally asked for a potvrzení o zajištění ubytování — a confirmation of accommodation signed by the owner, often with the signature officially verified. A landlord who will not sign one is a landlord whose flat you cannot use for your permit.

• Check the owner's name against the katastr nemovitostí (land registry) — it is a public database.
• Ask up front whether the owner will sign a potvrzení o zajištění ubytování with an úředně ověřený podpis.
• Take a předávací protokol at handover: meter readings, photographs, existing damage.

What the building will be like

Panelák blocks from the socialist era are cheap, warm, well served by transit and structurally fine; the renovated ones are genuinely comfortable. Nineteenth-century buildings in Vinohrady and Žižkov have the ceilings and the windows people move here for, and often no lift, thin floors and old wiring. Heating in older blocks is usually central and billed through the service charges, which means you cannot turn it down to save money.

In order

1. 1Set a total monthly budget that includes poplatky and electricity, not just the rent.
2. 2Search Sreality and Bezrealitky in parallel; treat Facebook listings as unverified.
3. 3View in person, or send someone. No money before someone has stood inside.
4. 4Check the owner against the katastr nemovitostí before you transfer anything.
5. 5Confirm the landlord will sign a potvrzení o zajištění ubytování.
6. 6Sign, pay the kauce and provize, and take a předávací protokol with meter readings.
7. 7Register your address — the foreign police deadline runs from arrival, not from move-in.