On your own: The sky is the limit for imagination, student housing lately requires a certain dose of creativity
Student housing is a long-term problem that just can't seem to find an answer. A topic that is essentially still relevant certainly moves the entire society. A peculiar trend lately is advising students to skip their favorite coffee spots and deny themselves small pleasures in forms like avocado toast. Then, supposedly, finding suitable accommodation won't be a problem for them. But how do the main influencers approach this issue? They are looking for ways to manage it without complete misery.
Living without cockroaches, mould, and ideally in warmth. That's a modest wish of most Czech students. Whether they will live alone, with a roommate or five other people, they don't worry that much. Unlike abroad, almost everyone can afford to study at a public university here. The scholarship hunt is more of an American fairy tale than a daunting reality here.
The price depends on many factors, but on average it is stated that studying abroad can cost up to several thousand euros per year. Studying for free is thus a kind of privilege here, which many people don't even realize. The amounts that foreign students leave for tuition alone are more than what most people spend on housing or even their entire studies. But how do students achieve minimal amounts for comfortable living? Let's take a look together.
Old school, dorms are still in
For many years now, probably the cheapest option for university housing. Dorms are a salvation, but also a scare for the young. Shared bathrooms, a small kitchen, and sometimes oddly peculiar spaces. In smaller towns, the average dormitory fee is around 3000 CZK per month, according to the pricelists of dormitories in Pardubice and Olomouc. This is a price that will surely make you forget about the aforementioned things. In larger cities, it goes up significantly, even so, the price/location ratio is usually advantageous.
The bigger problem is capacity. Students from far away usually have priority access to the dormitories, so not everyone always gets a place. This situation is also influenced by foreign students, especially Slovaks. Most notably in Brno, which due to its proximity to Bratislava is the top location for crowds of Slovak students in the Czech Republic. In the Moravian metropolis, sixteen percent of Slovaks were admitted to Masaryk University in the academic year 2024/2025 according to Forbes magazine, which is not a small percentage. The limited capacity of the dormitories is one of the most common reasons why students solve housing differently.
Shared living takes many forms
Probably the second most common variant is shared living. This can take several forms. Living only with a partner or a friend is a bit more expensive. Rent splitting will help, but with two people, you will approach the dormitory prices. A more common and less costly option is to live with more people. Admittedly, there will be a bit less privacy and agreement among more people tends to be chaotic, but the advantage is low rent for an attractive apartment and, if possible, larger spaces. At the same time, shared living is a romanticized phenomenon these days, thanks to famous series and sitcoms. As in Friends or How I Met Your Mother, almost everyone would want to live like that.
On Your Own: Man, You're in for Surprises!
Sometimes a situation arises that leaves you baffled. On the dormitory grounds, it might be stolen milk or our favorite act of leaving dirty dishes in common areas. There's probably no need to mention roommates who consider showering a chore.
What all students have in common, however, is a clear aversion to cooking or spending on food. Chinese soup with egg? Spaghetti with salt, or toast with cucumber? Interesting combinations that not just anyone would come up with. One tip from us is couscous with beans, but try it on your own. The faster and cheaper, the better. That's the motto of college kitchen magic.
Private, but different
Not having your own privacy is completely unimaginable for many people and we don't blame them. This can also be easily solved with a little bit of imagination. The new trend is renting just rooms, for example, in a family house. Renting a whole apartment is really an expensive wish for a student, but renting just a room? This option provides the peace and comfort of your own room for a fairly acceptable price. For many, this is the most acceptable option for housing.
Student housing is not a topic that should be overlooked. Increasing the number of dormitory spaces could be one of the options to at least slightly improve this situation. Many university students also continue to live with family members and this solution faces quite clear stigmatization on the internet.
"I don't understand. Staying in a mama hotel until twenty-five! It’s probably normal to leave home at latest in your twenties,”
states for example Vladimir Mlynář on the social network X.
Meanwhile, living at home during studies is not really a sin. The pressure exerted on the young is great and unpleasant, yet all it takes is to view the problem with a bit of empathy. After all, if the situation does not change in any way, students will have no other choice but to use "mama" hotels with their own creativity and improvisation.
Sources: author's text, X , Forbes, Olomoucký deník, Brněnský deník, Czech-us
