Currently, the lack of affordable housing, which inhibits labor mobility, is a major factor slowing economic growth in the Czech Republic. Problems include lack of financing, shortages of materials and labor, and a poorly developed infrastructure. In the mid-1990s the government drafted a new housing policy which, among other things, would lift existing restrictive legal provisions barring occupants from buying and reselling flats and differentiate rents according to quality and location of flats.
According to the 2001 census, there were about 4,369,239 dwelling units within the country with about 87% permanently occupied. About 1,983,521 dwellings are houses. There is an average of 2.69 people per household.