Discreet sale without advertising: when it makes sense

Some flats never appear in advertising (inzerce): the photographs never leave ten inboxes, the address is given only at the door, and the discreet property sale ends with a signature before the market learns of the listing (nabídka). For some properties this is the only sensible route. For most, it is a way for the owner to pay for silence out of their own pocket — and this text calculates what that silence costs.

Off market, semi-discretion and “we won’t publish the address”

Off market (a listing that does not get into public advertising) means three different things in practice, and each comes at a different cost.

Full discretion. The listing exists nowhere: not on a portal, not on our website, not in a mailing. There is only a named list of the people approached and a property presentation (expozé) sent out individually.

Semi-discretion. The property sheet (list nemovitosti) exists on the website, but it is not in the catalogue, not in the drawing register in the footer, and it has noindex — all of this is handled by a single hidden flag in the section settings. Only those to whom we send the link get to it.

“We won’t publish the address”. The most common and least useful variant: an advert (inzerát) with a missing detail. The address can be traced from the photographs and the view from the window in an afternoon, and a buyer who does so starts negotiating with distrust.

What you pay for silence with

The price is not formed in a valuer’s head but at the moment when more than one person wants the property. Every prospective buyer who does not find out is a missing voice — and a discreet sale deliberately reduces that number.

Against this stands a less visible item: a listing that hangs in advertising for a long time sells worse. An analysis of almost 2,000 listings of flats and houses from across the Czech Republic (Valuo, 2020) found an average difference of 4.84 % between the asking price (nabídková cena) and the achieved price (realizovaná cena). More interesting is the distribution over time. For listings withdrawn within 30 days, the expected discount was roughly 1.5 %; for listings advertised for 90–180 days it was already 6–8 %, with no demonstrable effect of location. Of the listings older than three months, over 80 % had been reduced in price. The data are from 2020, so treat them as indicative for today’s market.

For scale: in July 2026 a flat in Prague was on offer for 45 days on average. The threshold beyond which a discount is almost certain is twice the usual selling period (doba prodeje). A discreet sale therefore does not save on price; it saves time spent in advertising.

Example: a 5+kk flat, 200 m², asking price CZK 40,000,000

Three courses of the same sale (the flat has five rooms plus a kitchenette); the discount rates are from the sample above, the amounts are our calculation.

• The discreet round works. A sale within six weeks with a discount at the level of fast deals, 1.5 % — i.e. CZK 600,000 below the asking price. The owner receives CZK 39,400,000 and nobody finds out.
• It does not work, and the public phase is short. The listing goes out after six weeks and starts from zero: it has not hung anywhere, and the first days of attention are untouched. The same result, six weeks later.
• It does not work, and the public phase drags on beyond 90 days. A discount of 6–8 % takes off CZK 2,400,000–3,200,000; the average difference of 4.84 % would mean CZK 1,936,000.

So what matters is not whether the discreet sale works, but whether a clean public phase remains after it fails. Six weeks of silence are cheap. Six months of silence, after which the listing appears with an address that half the prospective buyers know from phone calls, are not.

When a discreet property sale helps

The reason is external, not about price. A tenant who should not learn of the sale from a portal before hearing it from the owner. Business premises with employees. A settlement (vypořádání) in which an advert is information for the other party. Discretion buys nothing here; it only controls who learns what and when.

The property has no comparables. When nothing similar has sold within one kilometre in twelve months, the price is formed not by competition between buyers but by negotiation with one. Public advertising adds no voices; it adds months, and with them the figure from the paragraph above.

A controlled test of the top price. Six weeks will test whether the upper limit is realistic. There is one condition, and it is strict: the people approached in the test must not be the same people who then come to the first public viewings.

When a discreet sale does harm instead

For an ordinary property with comparables. If five comparable units have sold in the area within a year, the price is formed by competition and every missing prospective buyer is a deduction. The process for such a flat is described in how to sell a flat in Prague; a discreet round has no place in it.

When the motive is “so that nobody knows the prices”. The purchase price is entered in the Land Registry (katastr nemovitostí) and from there gets into price maps (cenová mapa): the median price (medián ceny) of a flat in Prague for September 2026, CZK 160,543/m², was built precisely from such entries. A discreet sale postpones the publication of the price; it does not cancel it.

When discretion is put into the buyer’s hands. A prospective buyer who knows the listing is not advertised anywhere also knows they have no competition. This is the most serious objection to the whole approach, and there is only one answer: a written date on which the listing will go out. The buyer must know that date.

What the Land Registry reveals even if you stay silent

The title deed (list vlastnictví) is public, and anyone can request it. Part C (restrictions of the ownership right) shows a lien (zástavní právo) and its deletion, and therefore also that a sale is being settled. As soon as an application for registration (návrh na vklad) is filed, a Land Registry seal (plomba) with the letter P before the property designation is marked on the properties concerned — a neighbour who looks at the deed knows something is going on. The office informs the owner of the property of the marking of the seal at the latest on the following day, under § 16(1) of Act No. 256/2013 Coll., on the Land Registry (katastrální zákon), so even a co-owner the seller is currently not on speaking terms with will find out.

The times are fixed: the protective period (ochranná lhůta) of 20 days (§ 18 of Act No. 256/2013 Coll.), before which the office must not allow the registration; according to the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (Český úřad zeměměřický a katastrální, ČÚZK), the average time to complete a registration in August 2026 was 22 days nationwide; the administrative fee (správní poplatek) is CZK 2,000 under item 120 of Act No. 634/2004 Coll., on Administrative Fees. Discretion cancels none of the obligations: the owner hands the energy performance certificate (průkaz energetické náročnosti budovy) to the buyer at the latest when the agreement is concluded, and the fine is up to CZK 200,000, for a natural person and a business person alike.

How we run it

The scope of marketing is a separate clause in the brokerage agreement (zprostředkovatelská smlouva), not an annex: the listed channels that will be used, and a sentence saying that no others will be used without the owner’s written consent. The same clause contains the end date of the discreet phase — six weeks, then a review. Without that date, a discreet sale turns into a slow one. Exclusive representation (výhradní zastoupení) with a consumer can be agreed for at most 6 months under § 17(4) of Act No. 39/2020 Coll., on Real Estate Brokerage (zákon o realitním zprostředkování), so the discreet phase uses up a quarter of the agreed term.

We keep the list of people approached by name: date, name, channel, reason for declining, amount offered. The owner receives it in full, not as a summary — in a sale without advertising it is the only measurable output that comes into being. The property presentation goes out as a PDF with the recipient’s name in the footer. The site plan (situace), i.e. our drawing of the surroundings with the listed building blacked out, we send only after a confidentiality undertaking (mlčenlivost) has been signed: it is in effect the address. Of the numbered images, eight go out in the first round, and none of them is a view from the window by which the building could be recognised. The full property sheet and the listings catalogue come into play in the public phase.

Where our approach has a weak spot

Six weeks of silence spend the most valuable part of a sale — untouched attention — and give almost no data in return. A public listing returns numbers after the first few days: views, enquiries, viewings, amounts offered. A discreet round returns phone calls and an impression. The price is then adjusted according to an impression.

The second risk is the circle. The number of people for whom a listing at CZK 40,000,000 makes sense is finite, and they talk to each other. If the discreet round fails, the same people see the listing a second time and know that it did not go through once already. That is why we do not run the first round twice.

The third point is one we would rather not make. Our fee starts at 3 % of the purchase price: at this rate, a model loss of CZK 2,000,000 costs us CZK 60,000 and the owner CZK 1,940,000 — roughly thirty-two times as much. Our interest in the highest price is shared in direction, not in strength. That is why the discreet phase has a date, not a feeling.

Decision diagram: when a discreet sale helps and when it does harm

DECISION DIAGRAM — DISCREET SALE                 sheet 1/1
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

 ① Why should the listing not be advertised?
    │
    ├─ “the tenant / employees / the other party in the
    │   settlement must not find out”
    │        └──▸ EXTERNAL reason ──────────────────▸ [A]
    │
    ├─ “I don’t want it known what it sold for”
    │        └──▸ the Land Registry records it anyway ▸ [C]
    │
    └─ “without advertising we might hit a higher price”
             └──▸ PRICE reason ───────────────▸ continue to ②

 ② Has anything comparable sold within 1 km in 12 months?
    │
    ├─ YES, five or more ...... price set by COMPETITION . [B]
    ├─ YES, one to four ....... price is an estimate ..... [D]
    └─ NO, nothing comparable . price set by NEGOTIATION . [A]

 ③ Three stops — they apply above any branch
    ── the buyer knows the publication date ..... else [B]
    ── the discreet phase ends in the contract .. else [B]
    ── the property is vacant and prepared ...... else preparation

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 OUTCOMES

 [A] HELPS ....... 6 weeks · named list · eight images ·
                   site plan only after confidentiality ·
                   then a public phase from zero
 [B] HARMS ....... every buyer not approached is a deduction
                   from the price · straight to preparation
                   and public launch
 [C] NOT ENOUGH .. the price will be in the Land Registry and
                   in price maps · discretion postpones it,
                   does not cancel it · back to ②
 [D] PRICE TEST .. 6 weeks at the upper limit · those
                   approached must not reappear in the
                   public phase
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Frequently asked questions

What is an off-market property? A listing that gets neither into public advertising nor onto the broker’s website: there is only a named list of the people approached and a property presentation sent out individually. It is not a legal regime but a way of marketing — and that belongs in the brokerage agreement, so that it is enforceable.

Can a flat be sold for more without advertising? For a property with no comparables, yes, because the price there is not formed by competition. For an ordinary flat, probably not: every prospective buyer who does not find out is a missing voice. The second question in the diagram above decides.

How long should a discreet sale last? Six weeks, with an end date in the contract. A longer phase uses up time that is then missing in the public part — and from 90 days in advertising, the expected discount is around 6–8 %.

Will the neighbourhood find out what I sold for? Yes, only later. The purchase price goes into the Land Registry and from there into price maps; the office allows the registration at the earliest after the protective period of 20 days, and according to ČÚZK the average time to complete a registration in August 2026 was 22 days nationwide.

Key takeaways

A discreet sale is a tool for one problem: the need to control who learns what and when. For the price it is the wrong tool wherever the price is formed by competition — and that is most Prague flats. Before you decide on it, go through the diagram and answer the second question honestly; the number of comparable sales in the area over the last year will decide better than an impression from a viewing. And whatever the answer, give the discreet phase an end written into the contract. Silence without a date turns into postponement.