Czech Republic's third-largest city sees demonstration for dignified housing, Romani people among the protesters
Approximately 300 people, most of them youth, demonstrated on Friday in Ostrava, Czech Republic for dignified housing and affordable energy. The event was part of the program of the "climate camp" run locally by the "We Are the Limits!" movement (Limity jsme my!).
The group proceeded through the center of the city, chanting slogans and drumming. The march ended up in Aviators of Czechoslovakia Park (Parku československých letců) and gathered in front of the offices of the Heimstaden company, where those attending then criticized how the company works.
Several Romani residents of the units called “Finnish houses” in the Hrušov neighborhood owned by Heimstaden, the biggest private provider of rental housing in the Czech Republic, spoke at the event. Since 2020, the Swedish firm has purchased more than 42,500 apartments in the Czech Republic, mainly units that used to house miners throughout the Moravian-Silesian Region and were previously owned by the OKD firm.
Heimstaden wants to sell some of its real estate holdings now. It is already negotiating with some tenants.
These moves mean that others who rent from Heimstaden fear they will lose their housing. “I’ve lived in that little house since 2002. I invested all of my savings into fixing it up to make it livable. Almost half a million crowns [EUR 20,000]. Currently I have no money to buy another house. Some of my neighbors have already been given offers for their units. They have to pay more than a million [EUR 40,000]. I don’t know what will happen next,” a retiree told reporters.
A spokesperson for the Heimstaden firm, Kateřina Piechowicz, told the Czech News Agency that the housing units at issue are in a poor state of repair. That is one reason the firm is planning to sell them.
“Nobody has been given notice, though, absolutely not. We don’t want to demolish anything. Just unoccupied buildings,” the spokesperson said.
She went on to say that Heimstaden has offered to sell some homes to the tenants and that some are interested in buying them. However, she admitted that there is a group of tenants who are concerned they will not be able to afford to buy them.
“We will negotiate with everybody. For the time being this is just the first step. The purchase price is below the market price and we are prepared to reduce it further. We will not evict anybody. Unnecessary panic has arisen,” the spokesperson said.
“After the technical review of the Finnish houses, it unfortunately follows that they, like many others in our portfolio, cannot be in operation for the next decades without major intervention,” the General Director of the Czech branch of Heimstaden, Jan Rafaj, said previously. According to him, the previous owners did not deal with the technical condition of the houses for decades, which is why lower rents were charged to live there.
“In locations where our portfolio is unified, we prefer to hold on to the real estate, demolish structures that are unworkable, and build houses that will be low-energy, modern and new which we will be able to rent to the existing tenants. However, there are locations where we only own part of a building, or just a few houses in a tract. There we have decided to sell,” Rafaj said.
According to the Czech branch director, Heimstaden wants to chiefly offer the houses for sale to the current tenants at below market prices. “We have already made the first offers and we are ascertaining the interest. We are also discussing a possible revision of the prices, taking into account the completely different conditions and the fact that loans and mortgages are far less available than when we launched this campaign as a whole,” he said.
