During the pre-election debates on one of the most popular TV channels in the country, the leader of the Czech Social Democrats and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic, Jan Hamacek, made an unexpected statement. He offered to fight the housing crisis with fines of 3000-5000 kroons (120-200 euros) per month. The politician wants to take this amount from the owners of empty apartments. According to him, there are about 70,000 empty apartments in Prague whose owners do not want to rent them out to tenants.

Speaking out about a plan for solving the housing problems in the Czech Republic, the official stressed that only his party was closely tackling the issue.

According to Hamacek, speculators deliberately avoid listing apartments for rent in order to maintain a high price. If they have to pay up to 200 euros for each month of downtime, they will reconsider their view of the current situation.

The politician’s idea is not new. Similar measures to combat speculators in the rental real estate market are already in place in a number of European cities. If the Social Democrats win the next parliamentary elections, there is a chance that fines for vacant housing will be introduced as early as 2022.