Mirosovice, a small town off the main highway to Prague, has a school, a bar, a bakery and a grocery. For more substantial shopping, there’s a mall in Pruhonice, less than 15 minutes away. Pruhonice is home to a 620-acre park created by a Portuguese count, who attended to its plan and construction for nearly 50 years.

The house — built during the 1860s and renovated in the late 1990s by a Prague architectural studio — is a 10-minute walk from the village. It has 411 sq mt of living space (about 1,350 sq ft).

Most of the ground floor is taken up by the living room, which runs the length of the building, with a vaulted brick ceiling and a fireplace. (Heated hardwood flooring was installed during the renovation.) The floor tiles in the adjoining kitchen and hallway are original.

A hallway bisects the upstairs. On one side is the master bedroom, a walk-in closet and a bathroom; on the other are three bedrooms and a bath. Off the hallway, there’s a skylighted alcove, at present, being used as a study. The yard is landscaped. A renovated barn has a workshop; there is a two-car garage.

Prague is about 25 minutes away; Ruzyni International Airport is about 50 minutes.

Market overview

The Czech housing market grew for 15 years before being bruised in the global downturn. Jaroslav Zizka, director of sales at the Czech real estate company Svoboda & Williams, said that the growth before the downturn had been about 5 to 10 per cent year over year. Karel Dudych, associate director and head of the residential department at Jones Lang LaSalle, a financial services company in Prague, said the drop in the Prague market since then had been 5 to 10 per cent.

But outside Prague the change is harder to ascertain, in part because the market is still emerging. Zizka noted that while the housing crisis has affected sales and prices across the Czech Republic, a national baby boom over the past couple of years has provided sustenance for the single-family-home market outside the city — especially for homes costing less than 12 million koruny (or about $680,000).

Dudych added that price drops had not been as steep in new developments, perhaps because those drops were being offset by buyer incentives.

During the 1990s, it became increasingly popular for families to move outside Prague, according to Zizka. Many moved back to the city at the beginning of the 2000s, but he noted that the market for second homes outside Prague had slowly grown since. In general, though, the market is still emerging.

Mortgages have become harder to procure, with banks becoming stricter about proving income. A 25 per cent down payment is common; full loans are very rare, and the interest on loans, at present, at 5.2 per cent, increased from 4 per cent in 2007. He added that bank appraisals of properties had shifted closer to market price than in the past.

Buying basics

The biggest recent change for foreigners is that they no longer need to create an incorporated company to buy nonagricultural property. “If someone is a US citizen but just wants to buy an apartment here,” Zizka said, “they can do it in their own name.”

But if they decide to move there, they need to apply for a residency permit. Lukas Sima, head of the law department at Svoboda & Williams, says that costs for the permits vary depending on whether it is the applicant’s first permit, and on what Sima calls the “legal reason” for application — usually the applicant’s employment situation.

For example, a long-term visa for a freelancer costs about 30,000 koruny ($1,680), while a manager or partner in a company would pay about 25,000 koruny ($1,400) and a family member would pay 18,000 koruny ($1,008).

Subsequent visas and permits are less expensive. European Union citizens, on the whole, pay less than other foreigners. Residency applications are filed through embassies or consulate generals, and real estate firms provide guidance and document collection for an additional fee.

Additional contracts and papers — including document verification and applying to the local land register — are usually handled by the sales agent and company.

Zizka said that the buyer can expect to pay 20,000 to 50,000 koruny beyond the cost of the home (about $1,130 to $2,830). (Zizka pointed out that this estimate is for a single-family home, not, say, an apartment building or a commercial property.)

Who buys in Mirosovice

Across the country, the pool of property buyers has shrunk. “Right now, we’re mostly dealing with Czech buyers and expatriates — people who have family or roots in the country,” said Zizka.

“We don’t have as many people from the Balkans or the UK or Italy or Germany as we used to.”

Taxes and fees

Real estate taxes and fees are a minimal expense in the Czech Republic; for this property, a few thousand koruna per year (around $170). Zizka said there were some governmental proposals to change taxes in hopes of increasing the country’s revenue, but nothing has been set yet.

—International Herald Tribune