Tuesday, 8 September 2026
Rising housing prices are forcing Prague developers to make more efficient use of increasingly expensive residential space, but experience at one development suggests Czech buyers are reluctant to compromise on one traditional feature: a separate bedroom.
CRESCO REAL ESTATE says apartments with almost identical floor areas at its SO-HO Rezidence in Prague can achieve significantly different pricing depending on their internal layout. Buyers are prepared to pay more than CZK 10,000 per sqm extra for a conventional two-room apartment with an enclosed bedroom compared with a similarly sized unit where the sleeping area is only partially separated.
For an apartment of around 43 sqm, that difference can approach CZK 500,000, according to the developer. The figures suggest that floor area alone does not determine how buyers perceive the value of increasingly compact homes.
The distinction centres on a format CRESCO has previously marketed as 1.5+kk. Such apartments sit between a studio-style 1+kk and a conventional 2+kk. They provide a designated sleeping area separated to some degree from the main living space but stop short of creating a fully independent bedroom.
CRESCO has used the concept for several years in Slovakia, where it says buyers have become accustomed to the format. When the developer introduced the same approach in the first phase of SO-HO Rezidence, however, Czech customers responded differently.
“As housing prices increase, reducing apartment sizes is no longer simply a question of lifestyle, but increasingly one of affordability. The developer’s task is therefore not just to remove square metres, but to use them in a way that ensures a smaller apartment still provides high-quality housing that works over the long term. The 1.5+kk layout can be one solution. Our experience, however, shows that local market habits are just as important as the floor plan itself,” said Aleš Svatoň, CEO of CRESCO REAL ESTATE Czech Republic.
At SO-HO Rezidence, apartments originally designed around the 1.5+kk concept range from approximately 36 to 43 sqm. They are now marketed as 1+kk units. Smaller conventional 2+kk apartments start at around 42 sqm and extend to approximately 47 sqm, creating a point where the two categories have virtually the same overall floor area.
Despite this overlap, CRESCO says customers attach considerably more value to the traditional 2+kk arrangement. The difference indicates that buyers are assessing not simply how many square metres they receive for their money, but how those square metres are divided.
“A separate bedroom clearly has a high value for Czech customers. We can see that floor area itself is not decisive. At SO-HO, larger one-room apartments with a separated sleeping area overlap in size with smaller traditional 2+kk apartments, yet customers perceive them very differently. They regard the conventional 2+kk as a more comfortable and versatile solution that gives them greater flexibility in the future. This is reflected both in demand and in the price they are prepared to pay,” said Lucie Barcalová, Head of Sales at CRESCO REAL ESTATE.
The experience also highlights how residential terminology can influence purchasing decisions. CRESCO found that some Czech customers were uncertain about what the 1.5+kk description actually represented. Unlike the established 1+kk and 2+kk classifications, the additional half-room does not have a universally understood meaning and could describe anything from a sleeping recess to a small workspace.
As a result, CRESCO has stopped using the 1.5+kk designation in the second phase of SO-HO and at its Yards Žižkov project. Larger one-room apartments are instead marketed under the familiar 1+kk category, even where their layouts continue to provide a partially separated sleeping area.
“With customers in the first phase of SO-HO Rezidence, we repeatedly found that the apartment itself made sense to them, but they did not know what to expect from the 1.5+kk label. In the second phase of SO-HO and at Yards Žižkov, we therefore no longer use this category. We describe the larger one-room apartments conventionally as 1+kk. We have not changed the layout, only the way we describe it so that it is clearer for Czech customers,” Barcalová said.
The results have wider implications as developers respond to deteriorating housing affordability. Reducing unit sizes is one way of keeping absolute purchase prices within reach of a larger group of buyers, but simply cutting floor area risks producing homes that become less practical as occupants’ circumstances change.
Efficient layouts could therefore become increasingly important to the economics of new residential development. A compact apartment with a carefully separated sleeping zone can offer some of the functionality of a larger property while requiring fewer square metres, potentially helping developers control the final purchase price.
CRESCO’s Prague experience nevertheless indicates that the Czech market continues to assign a tangible premium to conventional layouts. At around 43 sqm, an extra wall and a genuinely separate bedroom can influence perceived value more than a marginal difference in total floor area.
As Prague housing becomes more expensive, the question for developers will be how far apartment sizes can be compressed before buyers begin to reconsider what constitutes an acceptable home. Alternative layouts may become increasingly necessary for affordability, but for now, the traditional 2+kk appears to retain a significant advantage among Czech purchasers.
