Three things happened around Airbnb in Prague over the summer of 2026, and they are easy to mix up. The Supreme Administrative Court confirmed that a building office's ban on using a residential flat for Airbnb is a corrective measure, and that the owner has one month to challenge it in court. The Ministry for Regional Development said again that it wants to give towns the power to limit short-term rentals, but no bill is in parliament and its own timeline now points to 2027. And residents of Prague 1 launched a petition asking for exactly that power. Only the first of the three changes anything for an owner today.
This article is the update to our eTurista overview from May 2026. The three scenarios we described there are still the three scenarios. What moved is enforcement, not legislation.
The short version
- Court ruling: real, in force, applies now. A flat approved as housing can be shut down for short-term letting, and you have one month to sue.
- Ministry plans: still only plans. Nothing has been submitted to parliament. The registration system, eTurista, is now planned for 2027.
- Prague 1 petition: pressure without power. The district cannot cap nights or ban Airbnb on its own. Only a new national law could give it that.
1. The court ruling: building offices can stop Airbnb in a residential flat
At the end of August 2026 the Supreme Administrative Court (Nejvyšší správní soud) published its decision in case 5 As 95/2026. A Prague couple rented out their flat on Airbnb. The flat was approved (kolaudace) for permanent housing, not for accommodation services. The building office warned them, they carried on, and in September 2024 the office banned the use of the flat for short-term rental under section 294 of the new Building Act. The office had to reissue the ban in June 2025 after the Municipal Court in Prague struck the first version for weak reasoning, and the second version stood.
The owners argued that the ban was really a punishment in disguise, so they should have had two months to go to court, as with a misdemeanour. The Supreme Administrative Court disagreed. The ban is a corrective measure that ends an unlawful state, not a penalty. It carries no finding of guilt. So the normal one-month deadline for an administrative lawsuit applies, and the owners' late filing was rightly rejected. The court also said the building office can run a separate misdemeanour case, with a fine, at the same time.
What it means:
- Prague 1's building office has treated short-term letting of a flat approved for housing as a breach of its kolaudace since 2021, and the city magistrate has backed that practice. Whether that reading is correct on the merits was not decided here: the court ruled only on what kind of measure the ban is and how long you have to challenge it.
- If you receive a usage ban, you have one month from delivery to file a court challenge. Miss it and the ban stands regardless of the merits.
- A fine can come on top of the ban, in a separate proceeding.
What it does not mean:
- It is not a ban on Airbnb in Prague. Nothing changed in the law. The court only confirmed how an existing tool works and how long you have to fight it.
- It does not affect flats or buildings approved for accommodation (ubytovací zařízení).
- It does not mean every Airbnb flat will get a ban tomorrow. Building offices act case by case, usually after a complaint from neighbours or the SVJ. The enforcement risk is highest in Prague 1 and 2, where complaints are common.
2. The ministry: municipal powers promised again, still no bill
Minister for Regional Development Zuzana Mrázová has revived the idea her predecessors could not get through parliament: let municipalities set a maximum number of rental nights per year, a minimum floor area per guest, and seasons when short-term letting in residential buildings is not allowed, in the Croatian style where a host needs a registration number before a platform will list the flat. Prague, Český Krumlov and Špindlerův Mlýn have asked for these tools for years.
Two things are worth knowing. The restrictions were originally due to apply from May 2026 and did not. And the ministry's own eTurista information site, updated in August 2026, says the law is still in the legislative process with a launch planned for 2027. The opposition tabled its own version in February 2026; the ministry said it preferred to write its own bill. As of early September 2026, neither has passed a first reading.
What it means:
- The direction is clear. Every government since 2024 has wanted registration numbers and some form of local control. The open questions are timing and how strict the caps will be.
- If you are buying a flat whose business plan depends on 250 nights a year of tourists, you are betting that a law with a night cap does not pass during your holding period.
What it does not mean:
- No night cap exists today, anywhere in the Czech Republic. A municipality cannot impose one under current law.
- eTurista is not live. You cannot register yet, and no platform requires a Czech registration number. Your current obligations are unchanged: guest book, reporting foreign guests through Ubyport, the Prague accommodation fee of CZK 50 per guest per night, a trade licence, and tax on the income.
3. Prague 1: the petition and the 60-night idea
In August 2026 a citizens' assembly of Prague 1 residents launched the petition "Vraťte byty k trvalému bydlení" (return flats to permanent housing). It asks for stricter enforcement of the rules that already exist, a working eTurista, and a national law that lets the district limit short-term rentals and fine offenders. The petitioners say around 13,000 flats in central Prague serve tourists. A referendum in the district in October 2025 showed 72% support for restricting short-term rentals in residential buildings.
The 60-night cap you may have read about comes from the city: in May 2025 the Prague city council asked parliament to keep municipal powers in the tourism bill, and city representatives have talked about 60 nights a year as the model. Parliament removed those powers before the vote.
What it means:
- Political pressure in the centre is high and growing, and it now has an organised voice going into the autumn 2026 municipal elections.
- Prague 1 will keep pushing its building office to act on complaints, which feeds directly into story 1.
What it does not mean:
- A petition and a referendum give the district no new legal power. It cannot cap nights, ban platforms, or fine hosts beyond what existing law allows.
- The 60-night figure is a wish, not a proposal in any current bill.
The numbers behind the argument
The Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) counted 7,878 entire flats and houses actively listed on Airbnb in June 2026. That is about 1.1% of Prague's roughly 720,000 flats. The share is around 20% in Prague 1, about 7% in Prague 2, and under 0.5% in the outer districts. More than half of the listings belong to hosts running five or more flats.
So the 13,000 figure in the petition is higher than the city's own count, and the citywide effect on housing supply is small. In Prague 1 the effect is not small, which is why the fight is concentrated there.
Our take
We tell our investors the same thing we told them in May: do not buy a flat whose numbers only work on Airbnb. If a flat is a sound long-term rental at today's prices, short-term letting is an upside you can switch on while the rules allow it and switch off when they do not. If the flat only pays with tourist occupancy, you are buying a regulatory bet, and this summer's ruling shows the downside can arrive as a letter from the building office long before parliament votes on anything. We would rather pass on ten such flats than own one when the ban comes.
Two scenarios for the next twelve months. In the first, the ministry's bill passes in 2027 with registration numbers and optional municipal caps; Prague 1 and 2 use them, the rest of the city does not, and central Airbnb yields fall toward long-term rental yields. In the second, the bill stalls again, and enforcement continues one flat at a time through building offices, with the same practical result in the centre but spread over years. We do not see a third scenario where the pressure goes away.
For anyone buying to live in the flat, none of this matters much. Fit matters more than the Airbnb question, and a building with fewer tourist flats is usually a nicer place to live anyway.
What to check now if you host in Prague
- Look at the kolaudace of your flat. If it is approved as housing (byt), you are exposed to a usage ban. A flat or building approved as accommodation (ubytovací zařízení) is not.
- Keep your existing obligations in order: trade licence for accommodation, guest register, Ubyport reporting, the CZK 50 accommodation fee, tax filing. Compliant hosts will also have the easiest path into eTurista when it arrives.
- If a letter from the building office arrives, the one-month clock starts on delivery. Get a lawyer that week, not that month.
- Run the numbers as a long-term rental. Our guide to rental yields in Prague is the place to start. If the long-term figure is fine, the short-term question is a detail.
