Why are the apartments in the Pařížská Street so overpriced?
It’s not usual to compare real estate to cars, but today I feel it’s fitting.
The Ferrari Group - one of the most exclusive car manufacturers in the world - sometimes launches an extra rare and limited series of cars. So rare that in some cases, only one piece is produced! Ferrari and Pařížská have a lot in common – not just the sound of luxury car engines driving at full speed through the most lucrative street in Prague, but also the rarity of the real estate located here.
A state within a state
Pařížská is like the Vatican in Rome - it is part of Prague 1, yet at the same time, it belongs to a different dimension. Owning an apartment here is not the same as having a property in one of the neighbouring streets. Pařížská is not Bílková, Maiselova, or Elišky Krásnohorské…
I don’t want to insult the neighbouring streets, it is still Josefov, but today we are talking about a limited edition of apartments.
We’ll probably agree that when someone says "I live in Pařížská" or "I own an apartment in Pařížská" it says something about them - it is a sign of social status and prestige.
Which apartments are the rarest?
If you want to live in Oldřich Nový’s apartment, or in a house that used to be owned by Peter Kellner, you have come to the right place.
Historically, very spacious flats were built in and around Pařížská - 130 m2 and larger.
Apartments with an area of over 150 m2 were divided into smaller units during the socialist era, due to which, when entering the shared areas, you often have to walk through another corridor to get to the apartment.
Few large apartments have managed to maintain their integrity until our time.
Large apartments in Pařížská are therefore rare, in demand, and rated above average.
Exclusive attics
During the First Republic, attics were used as housing for servants. Currently, penthouses are in great demand, and many clients explicitly ask for them: “We would like an apartment with no neighbours above.”
Although these apartments are top real-estate properties, at the beginning of the twentieth century, architects didn’t count on the existence of home cinemas or PlayStations when soundproofing the floors.
The apartments created in the attics of Pařížská have a unique charm, offer splendid views, and if you are lucky, even a terrace.
Welcome to Pařížská
Living on the most luxurious street in Prague certainly sounds very tempting. But there are a few things you might miss at first glance - things that can affect your well-being in Pařížská.
You’ll park here without problems, unless - God forbid - you’re looking for an empty spot between 11 and 2. It's a popular time for lunch, so you’ll be driving around for quite a bit. No original house in Pařížská (except for the hotel and the new buildings) has underground parking spaces. So if you have a convertible with a canvas roof, or a Rolls Royce, parking under the bushy linden trees of Pařížská will complicate things.
One day, tourism will return, and along with it bike bars, limousines with loud stag and hen parties, numerous groups of tourists who’ll trip on your little dog, scooters and other inventions of a society focused on tourism.
This is something you need to make peace with before moving to Pařížská - if you want to live here, you have to love people. But there’s a silver lining: you will never feel alone in Pařížská.
You can chat with the bearded gentleman, who earns extra money during rush hour by finding free parking spaces, or with talkative tourists you meet in the local cafés, take part in a marathon, visit the Prague Pride parade, or go to a concert at Staroměstské náměstí.
Many of the houses in Pařížská still don’t have a reception desk, which means service charges are reasonable. In addition, most of them are architectural monuments, recently repaired from grant money.
Pařížská is right in the centre of the Jewish quarter, with increased security around the synagogues, and limited traffic during major holidays and in case of suspicion of a terrorist attack. There are also a lot of bell towers around here that could disturb your morning or evening peace.
Price maps
The prices of apartments in Pařížská after reconstruction are almost double the prices per square meter in the surrounding streets. There are apartments that cost around 400,000 crowns per square meter. People find it absurd. They don’t realize that these apartments are equipped with state-of-the-art furniture and technology, with reconstruction for tens of millions, and you can move in right away with just a suitcase. Market researchers throw such exclusive flats in the same basket with flats before reconstruction, then put together an average price and present it to you on a golden plate called the Develop index. It makes no sense, you can’t mix pears with apples - apartments before renovation and those after a luxury reconstruction are not comparable.
Currently, rentals of larger apartments in this location start with the amount of one hundred thousand.
From 2018 to 2021, prices for apartments in Pařížská with a reconstruction of average quality rose by 55% and range from 300-350 thousand per square meter.
It depends on the house and the apartment.
As we already said in the episode "How to price your property for sale", the price per square meter is only a reference point in determining the total price of real estate. It’s just as much about the quality of the individual apartment and the property as a whole.
If you still think the prices for apartments in Pařížská are too high, ask yourself, what would you offer for a painting by Monet or a statue by Roden? They may be just a painting or a statue, but the authorship - and, in our case, the location - is unique and one-of-a-kind, just like the manuscripts by world-famous artists.
