- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2022
Developing Affordable Housing via Public-Private Partnerships in the Czech Republic
The European Commission aimed to strengthen the capacity of the Czech Republic to design and implement affordable housing projects via Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). Support was provided by developing sector-specific and general PPP methodologies and guidelines in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Finance. Municipalities should make use of these documents when building new housing projects.
Context
Public authorities in the Czech Republic are facing the challenge of housing becoming unaffordable for low-income households and, increasingly, for middle-income families. The problem is especially felt by professionals and public sector employees who are crucial to the functioning of towns and cities.
Czech authorities, therefore, are looking for new and more efficient ways to develop affordable housing to solve this problem. While the Public-Private Partnership has been successfully deployed in the Czech Republic to create new infrastructure, it is a new development in the housing sector.
The lengthy process of applying for a construction permit is a challenge for implementing PPP affordable housing projects in the Czech Republic. This was overcome during the project’s setup by allocating the responsibility for the construction permit process to the municipality.
Support delivered
The service provider, in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Finance and the European Commission, has prepared a package of methodologies and guidelines to boost the preparation, procurement, and management of PPP projects and simplify the work of public procurement authorities in preparing, procuring and managing affordable housing PPP projects.
This shall equip municipalities with a powerful instrument for tackling the increasing unaffordability of housing in the Czech Republic via the development and implementation of affordable housing projects.
Results achieved
The project outputs equip municipalities with publicly available guidelines for developing affordable rental housing projects via Public-Private Partnerships, which shall guide them step-by-step through the preparation and implementation process.
Furthermore, trainings and workshops have been organised for key public stakeholders (the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Finance, the State Investment Promotion Fund, the National Development Bank and Municipalities) to increase the knowledge of PPPs, provide them with information to make comprehensive decisions on whether and how to implement PPP projects, and increase the likelihood of higher quality PPP projects being delivered.
These activities should provide municipalities with helpful guidance and lead to the development of affordable rental housing projects via an innovative method where the majority of risk is transferred to the private sector partner.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: