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The cost of housing in Czechia continues to rise and high demand for apartments drove their prices to new highs in the second quarter of this year, real estate agencies reported. In the largest cities across the Czech Republic, the average purchase price surpassed CZK 100,000 per square metre for the first time in history, according to the latest Real Index survey conducted by the consulting company Deloitte. Across the country, people bought flats for an average of CZK 101,700 per square metre. An average 70-metre flat cost CZK 7.1 million, which is almost 12 percent more than a year ago. The most expensive housing is traditionally in Prague, where between April and June an average apartment cost CZK 132,000 per square meter, up 15 percent year-on-year. The cheapest apartments are available in the Ústí nad Labem region where they sell for CZK 34,900 per square metre on average.

The newly-elected leader of the Social Democratic Party Jana Maláčová said in her first statement to the media that her primary goal in the coming months would be to build a broad left-wing coalition ahead of the general elections in October of next year. The new party chair will face the uphill task of putting the Social Democrats back on the political map. In opinion surveys the party has consistently appeared below the 5 percent threshold needed to win seats in the lower house. The former labour and social affairs minister was elected by 66 percent of the votes cast by delegates at Saturday’s party conference  in Hradec Králové.

Another ten Czechs are being evacuated from Lebanon on a Slovak government plane, the Czech Foreign Ministry confirmed on Saturday. Slovakia sent a military aircraft to fly 46 Slovaks and citizens of other nationalities from Beirut to Cyprus from where they were transferred to a government plane bound for Bratislava. Another plane carrying evacuees is to land in Bratislava at midnight.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that remains in contact with all Czechs registered in Lebanon via the Drozd travel data base, as well as long-term Czech residents in the country. There are currently approximately 200 Czechs in Lebanon. The Ministry has prepared a list of individuals for potential further evacuations and is coordinating with international partners.

A 127-year-old Czech record for the volume of rainfall in one day in one place was broken during the September floods, the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute reported. The new record was set in Loučná nad Desnou in the Šumperk region which had 386 millimetres of rain, or 386 litres of rainwater per square metre on September 14. The previous record, set in 1897, was about 40 millimetres less.