Spatial differentiation of housing construction in Czechia: Towards Florida's new urban crisis?

Abstract

Since the 1990s, there has been an increase in interregional differences in housing prices in Czechia. These differences largely depend on the size and economic strength of the municipality or regional centre, but there exist also differences between regions. The article uses the indicator of housing construction intensity (HCI) for the twenty-two-year period 1997-2018 per 1 km2, which is processed at the level of municipalities using spatial autocorrelation (Anselin Local Moran's I) and hotspot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*), and presented in GIS. By comparing the results of both methods it was found that the interregional differences in the popularity of the Czech regions are significantly influenced by their distance to the main economic centres. On the contrary, the hypothesis that some regions with a worse environment, a higher share of the socially weak population and a low supply of above-average jobs will be the cause of the negative push effect has not been confirmed. In discussion, the current situation is compared with Richard Florida's concept of “New Urban Crisis”, to which arrival in Czechia it indirectly points to, although the initial conditions in Czechia are significantly different than in the US.