Transnational homeowners

A growing number of Czechs are buying houses beyond the Czech border in eastern Germany, the liberal daily Mlada fronta Dnes reports: "The strong [Czech] koruna and the sinking real estate prices in former East Germany are making the Czechs popular customers with Saxony's real estate agents. The Czechs are beginning to take an interest in buying houses and flats there for prices up to 50 percent lower than in their own country. ... The reasons for the low prices in Saxony lie in the region's weak economy and its high level of unemployment, which in the city of Zittau, for instance, is at over 20 percent. Many Germans have moved to states in western Germany, leaving behind empty houses and flats. ... However the majority of Czechs in question do not want to talk about these investments for fear of being branded as 'traitors' in their own country."

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