Buying a house in Czechia: no restriction, so everything hangs on the land registry
Anyone may buy immovable property in Czechia, regardless of nationality — no permit, no exception for agricultural land. That makes the purchase simpler than almost anywhere, and it makes the check more important: the purchase is only complete on entry in the land registry, and that extract has to be clean.
With Poland and Morocco a purchase starts with the question whether you may buy. With Czechia that question isn't there, and that shifts the work to the question that remains: is the extract clean.
No restriction
Anyone may buy and sell immovable property in Czechia, regardless of nationality. No permit from a minister, no transitional scheme, and unlike in Poland no exception for agricultural land or forest either. A flat in Prague, a house in South Bohemia, a plot on the edge of Brno: the rules are the same for you as for a Czech.
The purchase is only complete at the land registry
That's the rule you have to know. In Czechia you don't become the owner on signing the purchase deed, but on the entry in the land registry, the katastr nemovitostí. Between signing and entry lie weeks, and in those weeks the property is still the seller's.
That is why in Czechia the money almost always runs through an escrow account at a notary, lawyer or bank: you deposit, the money stays blocked, and it only goes to the seller once the land registry has confirmed the entry. Whoever pays directly pays for a property that isn't theirs yet.
What you have checked before signing
The extract from the land registry tells you who the owner is and what encumbers the property. Have it checked for:
- attachments and mortgages that aren't discharged on purchase;
- easements, such as a right of way or a lifelong right of residence of a family member;
- a pre-emption right of a co-owner or of the municipality;
- the zoning, if you plan something other than living.
Take your own lawyer or notary, not the seller's. In Czechia the notary doesn't automatically sign the purchase; often a lawyer does the deed and the escrow account, and that's fine as long as it's your lawyer.
The costs
Czechia no longer has a transfer tax. What remains is the lawyer or notary for the deed and the escrow account, the fee for the entry in the land registry, and possibly the estate agent. Count on two to four percent on top of the purchase price. New builds are sold with VAT.
And the tax on what you buy
With property the tax treaty doesn't follow your place of residence but the bricks: income from immovable property may be taxed in the state where that property is situated. That's in article 6. A property in Czechia is taxed there, with the annual Czech property tax on top, and a home you keep in the Netherlands stays taxed in the Netherlands. Czechia exempts that Dutch part from its own tax.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change — when in doubt the source is leading, not this article.
- Gov.cz — conditions for the purchase and sale of immovable property — portal.gov.cz
- Agreement Netherlands-Czechoslovakia for the avoidance of double taxation — wetten.overheid.nl
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