How to sell a flat in Prague: process, preparation, price
In Prague, the question “how to sell a flat” has one awkward feature: the answer is simple, but the order of the steps decides the result more than anything else. This text takes you through a sale from the decision to the registration of the new owner in the Land Registry (katastr nemovitostí), and for each phase it says what to do in it and what happens if it is skipped.
Two weeks that decide the price
A flat sells best in the first ten to fourteen days from the moment it appears in adverts (inzerát). That is when everyone currently searching the market looks at it — and someone who has been searching for half a year will spot a new listing (nabídka) within the hour.
This leads to the one practical rule of the whole sale: you go to market only when everything is ready. Not “let’s put it out for now and add the photos later”. A listing that looks average for its first two weeks loses them, and they never come a second time. The price is then knocked down not by the market but by a wasted start.
Preparation therefore comes before publication, not the other way round. In the model schedule below it takes three to four weeks and consists of three things: documents, the condition of the flat and the presentation materials.
Documents to obtain before you find a buyer
Paperwork is not extra administration; it is a set of arguments. A buyer who receives a complete file right at the viewing decides faster and haggles less.
Extract from the title deed (list vlastnictví, LV). Look at it before anyone else does. The Land Registry viewing service (Nahlížení do katastru) is free and online; a full extract is issued on the spot by the cadastral office (katastrální úřad) for CZK 100, and it costs the same via remote access (dálkový přístup); Czech POINT charges at most CZK 100 for the first page and CZK 50 for each further page. Three places need reading. Part A: the owner’s name and birth number (rodné číslo) — they must match the identity document, including a surname changed after marriage or divorce. Part B: the designation of the unit and the size of the share in the common parts (podíl na společných částech); this is where you can tell whether the cellar (sklep) and the parking space belong to the flat or are merely used with it. Part C: a lien (zástavní právo), an easement (věcné břemeno), enforcement proceedings (exekuce), a note on pending proceedings (poznámka o zahájeném řízení). A surprise here can delay a sale by months, and it is better dealt with calmly than under the pressure of an advance payment (záloha) already made.
Owner’s declaration (prohlášení vlastníka) and the association’s articles (stanovy společenství). They define what belongs to the flat: cellar, parking space, share in the common parts. Both are issued by the building manager (správce domu) or the committee (výbor), usually by email within a few days; the declaration is also kept in the Land Registry’s collection of deeds (sbírka listin). One thing is checked, and it is worth doing with a tape measure in hand: does the area in the declaration match the one you are about to advertise? A difference between the area on paper and the measured area is the most common reason for disputes after signing.
Confirmation from the building manager. No arrears (bezdlužnost), the amount of the monthly advance payments for services (zálohy na služby) and their breakdown, the repair plan, the balance of the repair fund (fond oprav) and whether the association is still paying off a renovation of the building. Getting it takes a matter of days and it is one of the minor items in the sale budget; it pays to find out in advance what the manager charges. The buyer will always ask, and reads the answer “the fund is fine” without figures as evasive.
Energy performance certificate (průkaz energetické náročnosti, PENB). The unit owner does not usually obtain the energy performance certificate personally: they request it from the owners’ association (společenství vlastníků jednotek), which must hand it over within 30 days if it already has one, and within 60 days if it first has to obtain it. It is valid for 10 years from the date it was drawn up, so it often already exists. It is presented to the buyer before the contract is concluded and handed over at the latest when the purchase agreement (kupní smlouva) is signed; the energy performance class (energetická třída) belongs in the advert itself. A natural person who fails to comply faces a fine of up to CZK 200,000. Those 60 days are the reason why the certificate is requested in the first week, not the fourth.
Floor plan. If there is none, have the flat measured; it takes one visit. The cheapest item of the whole preparation, with the greatest impact on the number of viewings. On the finished drawing, check that the sum of room areas (užitná plocha) matches the area you will advertise, and that each area states what is included in it.
Who is selling: a sole owner, spouses, co-owners, heirs
Before the price is discussed, it must be clear who is entitled to sign. This is where most sales break down, and it can almost always be established in the first week.
Community property of spouses (společné jmění manželů, SJM). A flat acquired during the marriage is, as a rule, part of the community property, even if only one of the spouses is shown on the title deed. A sale is not an ordinary matter, so the spouses act jointly, or one acts with the consent of the other (§ 714 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code, občanský zákoník); if consent is missing, the spouse who was left out may invoke invalidity. In practice this means either both sign the purchase agreement, or there is a separate declaration of consent with an officially verified signature (legalizace podpisu; CZK 50 per signature). If the other spouse refuses consent without a serious reason, or is unable to express their will, a court can be asked to substitute it. That, however, is court proceedings, not a formality, and it will not fit into the twelve-week plan.
Co-ownership in shares (podílové spoluvlastnictví). Each co-owner sells their own share, and selling the whole requires the agreement of all of them. When a share alone is sold, also watch for the other co-owners’ pre-emption right (předkupní právo): if the co-ownership arose through inheritance or another fact the co-owners could not influence from the outset, the others have a pre-emption right to the share for six months from the day the co-ownership arose (§ 1124 of the Civil Code). It does not apply to a transfer to another co-owner, a spouse, a sibling or a relative in the direct line. After six months the share is sold without being offered to the others. With flats inherited by siblings, the most demanding part of the sale tends to be reaching agreement within the family, not negotiating with the buyer.
Probate proceedings (dědické řízení). Until they have been finally concluded, there is no one who can transfer the flat. The court may allow an heir whose right of inheritance has already been clearly proven to dispose freely of specific items before the proceedings end, provided the other heirs agree (§ 1680 of the Civil Code); but as soon as the rights claimed conflict, this is not possible at all. The listing can be prepared; signing cannot.
Representation by power of attorney (plná moc). When the owner is not available, this is resolved with a power of attorney. If the legal act requires a special form, the power of attorney is granted in the same form (§ 441 of the Civil Code), and the transfer of real estate is always in writing. For registration in the Land Registry, the principal’s signature on the power of attorney must be officially verified (§ 15 of Act No. 256/2013 Coll., on the Land Registry, katastrální zákon). The scope is spelled out by name: the designated unit and an express authorisation to sign the reservation agreement (rezervační smlouva) and the purchase agreement, the escrow agreement (smlouva o úschově) and the application for registration (návrh na vklad). A general “I authorise the sale of the flat” may not be accepted for registration, and the document then has to be obtained again. Preparing the power of attorney in advance is cheaper than chasing a signature a week before the deadline.
The last point is also the most common cause of a delay that has nothing to do with the market: the listing is ready, the buyer is waiting and the fourth co-owner cannot be reached.
Price: figures, not impressions
The price is not set from the neighbours’ adverts. An advert is the seller’s wish, not a completed deal.
The work is done with actual transactions for comparable flats: same location, similar layout, similar storey, comparable condition. These are then adjusted for differences that can be documented. The result is not a single figure but a range, with a recommended launch price within it.
Where achieved prices come from
For some transfers, the Land Registry records what is called price data (cenový údaj), i.e. the price stated in the transfer deed. In the Land Registry viewing service you can see free of charge which properties have it recorded; the amount itself is bought via remote access as a report with data on achieved prices, for CZK 50 per output. The second layer is the property price indices of the Czech Statistical Office (Český statistický úřad, ČSÚ): they show the direction of the market, not a specific flat. The third is one’s own record of deals — what a flat sold for, after how many weeks and from what launch price.
Each of these sources has a flaw, and it is only honest to admit it. Price data reach the Land Registry with a delay and do not say what the price included: furnishings, parking, timing. Our own records, in turn, are the more accurate the more deals they contain — and for some layouts and neighbourhoods (čtvrť) only a handful go through in a quarter. Our range then comes out wider than we would like; we say so openly instead of narrowing it to one confident figure.
Why the asking price (nabídková cena) and the achieved price (realizovaná cena) differ: the asking price is an open position, carries a discount the seller built in beforehand, and it ages. The achieved price is the only figure someone actually paid.
How the adjustment is calculated
You start from the price per metre of a comparable deal and adjust item by item. We do not give specific coefficients here, because they are derived from comparable deals in the given location; the principle is always the same: you adjust for a difference that can be documented, not for an impression.
- Storey and lift. The first above-ground storey (nadzemní podlaží) facing the street goes down, the top storey with a lift and a view goes up, the top storey without a lift goes significantly down. In a five-storey building without a lift, the fourth storey can decide the price more than the condition of the bathroom.
- Orientation and noise. A window onto a quiet inner courtyard (vnitroblok) goes up, a window onto a light well or a busy avenue goes down.
- Condition. What counts is not a feeling but the cost of bringing the flat up to the condition of the one it is being compared with.
The two things most often done wrong with the price:
An inflated launch price “to leave room for a discount”. It does not work. In the first two weeks the flat is shown to the whole market at a price the market rejects, and the market then reads further discounts as a sign that something is wrong with the listing.
A price based on how much the owner needs. The market does not care. The seller’s need belongs in the plan, not in the price list.
The methodology and a sample comparison are covered in the text on how the price is determined from actual transactions.
Preparing the flat: in order of cost versus impact
Not everything pays off. A bathroom renovation before a sale pays for itself only exceptionally; clearing out and cleaning almost always do. The order in which to invest in preparation:
- Clear out. Personal belongings, surplus furniture, everything off the windowsills and out of the hallway. The cheapest and most effective step.
- Fix minor defects. A dripping tap, a creaking door, a cracked socket. In the buyer’s mind, every visible small fault means “what else can’t be seen”.
- Repaint if needed. White, not coloured.
- Add light. A dark flat sells worse than a small one.
- Only then consider larger interventions.
What really pays off and what does not, with a budget at three levels, is covered in a separate text on home staging.
Presentation: photographs, floor plan, text
The photograph decides whether someone clicks through. The floor plan decides whether they come to a viewing. The text decides what questions they arrive with.
Photographs are taken in daylight, after cleaning, from a tripod and wide-angle — but without distortion. The order of the shots should lead the way a viewing does: entrance, main living space, view from the window, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, utility areas, the building, the surroundings. The first photo is the best one, not the one of the hallway.
The description is written in the order in which the parameters are read in the documentation: layout, area, storey, type of ownership, condition of the building, energy class. No superlatives — concrete facts sell more reliably than adjectives.
Viewings and price negotiation
Viewings are held individually, by appointment, and always to the same script: the living space first, the utility areas last. Group “open days” tend to do more harm than good in the premium segment — a buyer spending ten million does not want to stand in a queue.
Offers are collected in writing, stating the price, the method of payment and the dates. A verbal promise carries no weight and in practice easily disappears.
When two offers arrive at once
Never negotiate the same point with both separately. Either a round, or an order of priority.
An offer round looks like this: all interested parties receive the same message at the same hour, with the same deadline and the same fields — price, method of payment, date for signing the reservation agreement, handover date, conditions. The result is then announced to everyone, including those who were unsuccessful. It is the whole offer that is chosen, not the highest figure.
The round has a drawback, however, that it is fair to admit: it puts some buyers off. Anyone who decides slowly or dislikes competition walks away — and sometimes that is precisely the one who would have paid the most in the end. That is why we open one only when there are at least two serious offers on the table.
The second route is an order of priority: the first interested party and a back-up who knows their position and has their offer in writing with a validity date. The back-up is the only insurance against going back to the start.
Cheap and expensive concessions
In price negotiations, a discount should have a reason and something in return. A discount for an earlier handover date is a deal. A discount because the buyer tried haggling is just a discount.
Cheap concessions cost time or things: leaving the kitchen units and wardrobes, moving the handover by a month, clearing out beyond what was agreed, taking over the registration fee. Expensive ones come off the price or open another round of negotiation: a discount as a “renovation reserve”, deferring part of the purchase price, a discount with nothing in return.
Withdrawal
The reservation agreement should answer three questions, with dates and amounts: by when the purchase agreement will be signed, what happens to the advance payment if the buyer does not sign, and what happens if the seller does not sign. The third answer is often missing from the drafts put forward; symmetry is not a given and has to be asked for.
Contracts, escrow and the Land Registry
The sequence of steps is fixed, and each of them has its own deadline.
- Reservation agreement. It defines the unit, the price, the date for signing the purchase agreement and what happens to the advance payment.
- Purchase agreement and escrow agreement. They are usually signed at the same time, with officially verified signatures (CZK 50 per signature). If the signatures are not verified, the applicant must prove their authenticity within 30 days of filing the application, otherwise the cadastral office stops the proceedings.
- Depositing the purchase price in escrow. The full amount, before the application for registration is filed. It is released only against the registration of the ownership right.
- Application for registration. Administrative fee CZK 2,000. Attached are the deed for registration (vkladová listina) and, where applicable, the power of attorney with the principal’s officially verified signature.
- Land Registry seal (plomba) and protective period (ochranná lhůta). The cadastral office marks that the legal relations are affected by a change, and informs the owner of this no later than the following day. Registration can then be approved no earlier than 20 days after the day this information was sent. It is not a cooling-off period; it is the owner’s protection against a fraudulent transfer.
- Registration and release of the price. According to statistics of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (Český úřad zeměměřický a katastrální, ČÚZK), registration took 22 days on average nationwide in August 2026.
If a lien of the seller’s is registered in Part C of the title deed, both the purchase agreement and the escrow agreement must include a breakdown of the purchase price: one part to settle the debt, the rest to the seller, both tied to proof that the lien has been extinguished. The lien is not deleted from the Land Registry by itself — the lien debtor (zástavní dlužník) files an application for deletion and proves its extinction with a document confirmed by the lien creditor (zástavní věřitel). This document is requested in advance, stating the account number and the amount as at the date, not only after payment.
If the buyer is not paying the whole price from their own funds, the seller is interested in one thing only: when the money will reach escrow, and what happens to the buyer’s lien agreement (zástavní smlouva) if the registration does not take place. Both belong in the contract.
After registration the flat is handed over: the handover protocol (předávací protokol), meter readings with photographs, keys, the transfer of energy suppliers and notification to the building manager.
And the last step, the one that gets forgotten: income tax (daň z příjmů). Whether the sale is exempt depends on the holding period test (časový test) and on what you do with the money. The conditions are covered in the text on income tax on a property sale.
Seller’s costs: what is actually paid
A sale costs something before it brings in any money. An overview of the items the owner should allow for:
| Item | When it is paid | Indicative amount |
|---|---|---|
| Extract from the title deed | first week | CZK 100 per title deed |
| Price data from the Land Registry | price preparation | CZK 50 per output |
| Energy performance certificate, if the association does not have one | first week | as quoted by an energy specialist |
| Measurement and floor plan | preparation | as quoted by the contractor |
| Clearing out, minor repairs, cleaning, painting | preparation | depending on the scope of work |
| Photographer, graphics, texts | preparation | included in our fee |
| Legal services and escrow | signing | included in our fee |
| Official verification of signatures | signing | CZK 50 per signature |
| Broker’s fee (odměna zprostředkovatele) | after registration | from 3 % + VAT of the purchase price |
| Administrative fee for the application for registration | filing the application | CZK 2,000 |
| Income tax | after the end of the year | depending on the exemption conditions |
Two lines deserve an explanation. Our fee is from 3 % + VAT of the purchase price and covers preparing the documents, the presentation, viewings, negotiation, as well as legal services and escrow; what exactly it includes is published on the for owners page. For letting, the fee is one month’s rent. Elsewhere, legal services, the photographer and escrow are often separate items, so the only fair comparison is the total, not the percentage.
The administrative fee for registration is paid by whoever is named in the purchase agreement. It is a matter of agreement — and at the same time the cheapest concession that can be offered in negotiation.
What does not appear in the overview, and should not: the real estate acquisition tax (daň z nabytí nemovitých věcí). It has been abolished and is no longer taken into account in sales.
Twelve-week sale schedule
A model course of the sale of a flat in Prague, prepared from scratch. The weeks are a model, not an average from our records; the actual time varies with location and price.
| Week | What happens | Who does it | Result at the end of the week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viewing of the flat, title deed (LV) extract and reading Part C, PENB request, measurement, check of community property (SJM) and co-owners | representative + owner | We know what we are selling, who will sign it and what encumbers it |
| 2 | Price analysis from actual transactions, adjustments for storey, lift and condition | representative | Price range and launch price with justification |
| 3 | Clearing out, minor repairs, cleaning, painting if needed; confirmation from the building manager | owner | Flat ready for the photo shoot, file complete |
| 4 | Daylight photo shoot, floor plan, texts, property sheet (list nemovitosti) | representative | Complete presentation |
| 5 | Publication, contacting our register of buyer enquiries | representative | Listing on the market |
| 5–6 | Main wave of viewings, collecting written offers | representative | Feedback from the market, first offers |
| 7 | Evaluation: do the numbers of viewings and offers match the price? An offer round if needed | representative + owner | Price confirmed, corrected, or a choice from the round |
| 8 | Choice of buyer, reservation agreement, agreement on dates and on the back-up | both parties | Flat reserved, back-up in writing |
| 9–10 | Preparation of the purchase agreement and escrow, documents for deleting the seller’s lien | legal services | Signing, price deposited in escrow |
| 10 | Filing the application for registration (CZK 2,000) | legal services | Seal on the title deed, 20-day protective period running |
| 11–12 | Registration proceedings (vkladové řízení; 22 days on average nationwide in August 2026) | cadastral office | Registration of the ownership right |
| after registration | Release of the price from escrow, handover of the flat, protocol, transfer of energy contracts | both parties | Keys handed over, protocol signed |
Three weeks fall to the owner, and not even those in full: week 1 (documents and deciding who signs), week 3 (clearing out and cleaning) and week 7 (the decision on the price). The rest is up to the representative. Things slip most often in the third week — clearing out cannot be delegated and nobody enjoys it.
Weeks 10 to 12 overlap with the registration proceedings — with a national average of 22 days to complete registration, the model puts the registration only in the thirteenth or fourteenth week, which is why it is sensible to reckon with fourteen weeks rather than twelve.
What does not always work in this approach
To be honest: the schedule above assumes a flat without legal defects, an owner who can be reached in Prague, and a price set correctly the first time. When one of these three does not hold, everything takes longer.
The most common delays are caused not by the market but by the owner — clearing out that keeps being postponed, an unreachable co-owner, missing consent from the other spouse. These are things to be resolved in the first week, not the eighth. What to ask before signing a brokerage agreement (zprostředkovatelská smlouva) is summarised in the text on representation in a sale, and what our fee includes is set out on the for owners page.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to sell a flat in Prague? In the model schedule above, it comes to three to four months from the start of preparation to handing over the keys. The advertising itself is only part of that; the rest is taken up mainly by preparing the documents, the contracts and the registration proceedings.
Do I need an energy performance certificate even if I am selling the flat “as it stands”? Yes. The obligation is tied to the sale, not to the condition of the property, and the certificate is handed over at the latest when the contract is concluded.
Can I sell through several brokers at once? You can. The practical effect, however, tends to be the opposite of what people expect — the same listing in several places at different prices looks to the buyer like a listing that nobody is managing.
When is income tax on the sale payable? When the sale meets neither the holding period test nor any of the exceptions. What decides is the date of acquisition, the length of residence and the use of the proceeds for your own housing needs (vlastní bytová potřeba).
What if there is a lien on the flat? It can be sold. The settlement is handled through escrow, and the contract must describe when and how the lien will be deleted.
Key takeaways
A sale is won in the preparation, not in the price negotiation. You go to market with finished documents, a finished flat and a finished presentation — the first two weeks do not come again.
The price rests on completed deals, not on adverts. And the three things that most often delay signing can be resolved right in the first week: the title deed extract, the other spouse’s consent and the availability of all co-owners.