Countries · Czechia
What to check in Czechia before you sign.
What encumbers a property here sits in the cadastre, not in the listing. Mortgages, easements and enforcement notes pass to the buyer with it.
What costs the most money in Czechia
In 2025, 46,961 notes on an ordered or commenced enforcement were entered in the cadastre. The note sits on the property itself, not with the debtor, visible to anyone who looks.
Source: Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, statistics on cadastral notes, Q1 to Q4 2025
Purchase costs
- Real estate transfer tax0%, abolished
- Application to register in the cadastreCZK 2,000
- Estate agent commissionno statutory rate
- Lawyer or notary, escrow includedno statutory rate
Source: Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre for the fee (item 120a of the Administrative Fees Act 634/2004 Coll.). Financial Administration for the acquisition tax. It was abolished by Act 386/2020 Coll. with effect from 26 September 2020, retroactively for registrations from December 2019. There is no statutory rate for agent commission or legal fees, which is why no figure is given here.
The trap for tenants
The deposit is capped, and together with any agreed contractual penalty: the two combined may not exceed three months' rent. Until 28 February 2017 six were allowed, and older contract templates still carry the old figure. The tenant is also entitled to interest on the deposit, at least at the statutory rate.
Energy and the duty to renovate
The PENB energy certificate is compulsory for sale and for letting. It is valid for ten years from issue, unless the building has undergone a major renovation or the heating has been changed.
Source: Ministry of Industry and Trade, Act 406/2000 Coll. and Decree 78/2013 Coll.
What to watch for in Czechia in particular
The sore point is the money between contract and registration. The agent may only hold the purchase price if the client asks for it expressly, in writing on a separate sheet, not as a clause in the contract. A separate account must then be kept for each escrow and the bank told whose money it is.
Anyone who transfers the purchase price without that sheet into an agency pooled account has none of these safeguards.
Official maps in Czechia
3 map layers lie directly over your property.
Not as an average for the district, but at your exact address, with a legend and a visible source. Every layer can be switched on separately.
Check it yourself
The official bodies in Czechia.
These bodies are grouped by category: property and encumbrances, energy, natural hazards and more. The report on your property names the responsible bodies, with the date checked and a link. A figure you cannot verify is not a figure, it is a claim.
over 200
official data sources
3
categories
What this costs
46,481
enforcement orders for the sale of a property were entered in the cadastre in 2025. The note attaches to the property, not to the debtor, and it appears in no listing. Anyone who checks the cadastre before signing finds it in a minute.
Source: Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, statistics on cadastral notes, Q1 to Q4 2025
111,132
easements were newly registered in 2025: rights of way, utility and residence rights. They stay attached to the land even when it changes owner, and they narrow what you may do with it.
Source: Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, statistics on registrations entered by vklad, Q1 to Q4 2025
These numbers arise after the signature. The report does the maths before it.
The market in Czechia
Cadastral offices handled 803,857 registration proceedings in 2025, among them 418,260 registrations of ownership and 147,364 newly registered mortgages.
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