A mortgage with an LTV of 100 %, meaning a loan equal to the full value of the pledged property, is not available in Czechia in October 2026. The binding ČNB limit is 80 % of the value, or 90 % for applicants under 36. You can still borrow the whole purchase price, just not with one loan secured on one property.
Five myths circulate about the “100 % mortgage”, and each has a price in koruna. Four ways to buy a flat without cash are compared in our guide to a mortgage without a deposit. This article is about what the LTV figure really means and where people get their sums wrong.
Do you only need 10 % of the price with LTV 90 %?
You don't, unless the bank's valuation matches the purchase price exactly. LTV is calculated from the collateral value set by the bank's valuer, and in a hot market that tends to be lower than the price in the purchase agreement. According to ČBA (the Czech Banking Association), older flats rose 14 % year on year in Q2 2026, and valuations often fail to keep up with that pace.
Say you buy a flat for CZK 5,000,000 and it is valued at CZK 4,800,000. At LTV 90 % the bank lends you CZK 4,320,000, which is 86.4 % of the price. Instead of CZK 500,000 you need CZK 680,000, so the myth costs you CZK 180,000 in extra cash before you have paid a single cost of buying.
“With my parents' flat as collateral I have a 100 % mortgage”
You have a loan for 100 % of the purchase price, but an LTV well below the limit. If your parents pledge their flat, valued at CZK 3,000,000, the bank sees a CZK 5,000,000 loan against collateral worth CZK 8,000,000, an LTV of 62.5 %. Nobody is getting round the ČNB limit; it is simply calculated from both properties.
The price is a second valuation at CZK 3,000–6,000, CZK 2,000 to register the lien (zástavní právo) in the land registry and, above all, a risk for your parents: if you stop paying, the bank can sell their flat as well. How this kind of additional collateral works and when you can get it released is covered in Using parents' property as mortgage collateral.
“I'll top up the rest with a consumer loan”
The bank asks where your own funds come from, and it will see the new loan in the credit register. It then counts that repayment against your income like any other.
Take a flat for CZK 5,000,000, a mortgage of CZK 4,000,000 (5.00 %, 30 years, repayment CZK 21,473) and the missing million borrowed as a consumer loan at an illustrative 9 % over 8 years. That loan costs CZK 14,650 a month and CZK 406,420 in interest. The two repayments together come to CZK 36,123, which on net income of CZK 60,000 is 60 % of income. At the banks' usual internal threshold of 45 %, with the same consumer loan running, a bank would lend you only about CZK 2.3 million as a mortgage.
“Prices are rising, so I'm not taking a risk”
The risk of financing the full price doesn't show when you buy. It shows when you have to sell unexpectedly: a divorce, a move for work, a drop in income. With no equity of your own, a modest fall in prices is enough to leave you owing more than the flat will fetch.
What a 10 % fall in prices does after three years (flat for CZK 5,000,000, annuity repayments, 5.00 %, 30 years, sold after 36 months for CZK 4,500,000):
- A CZK 5,000,000 loan with additional collateral, repayment CZK 26,841. The balance after three years is CZK 4,767,180, so the sale brings in CZK 267,180 less than you owe.
- A CZK 4,000,000 loan with 20 % of your own funds, repayment CZK 21,473. The balance is CZK 3,813,744 and the sale leaves you CZK 686,256.
Selling costs come off both figures. With full financing, the shortfall has to be paid from savings, otherwise the bank will not release its lien and the sale cannot go through.
When you sell the property you can repay the mortgage free of charge, but only once at least 24 months have passed since you signed the loan agreement. Before that, during the fixed-rate period, the bank may charge up to 0.25 % of the amount repaid for each started year left until the fixation ends, capped at 1 % in total. On a balance of around CZK 4.8 million that can mean up to CZK 48,000.
“In a few years I'll fix the LTV by refinancing”
With annuity repayments the principal falls slowly at first. A loan of CZK 4,320,000 on a flat worth CZK 4,800,000 (LTV 90 %, 5.00 %, 30 years) still has CZK 3,967,001 outstanding after five years. That is 82.6 % of the flat's value if the price stays where it was. You only get below 80 % after seven years.
At the end of your first five-year fixed period you will therefore still be in the dearer LTV band, and moving to a bank that prices loans up to 80 % of value more cheaply may not work out. A fresh valuation can help if the flat has gained value in the meantime, and so can an extra repayment: the law lets you repay up to 25 % of the original loan amount free of charge once a year, in the month before the contract anniversary.
When does financing close to 100 % make sense?
- The repayment sits well below the bank's internal threshold and you could carry it at a rate 1 pp higher. A CZK 5,000,000 loan over 30 years costs CZK 26,841 a month at 5.00 % and CZK 29,978 at one point more.
- You intend to live in the flat at least until the first fixed period ends and have no plans to sell in the next few years.
- You have a reserve covering several repayments, separate from the money for the purchase.
- Parents who pledge their property understand they could lose it, and the contract allows the pledge to be released once part of the loan is repaid.
If any of these doesn't apply, saving for a year or two or buying a smaller flat often works out cheaper. How much of your own money it is sensible to have ready is discussed in How much of a deposit you need for a mortgage.
Sources
- ČNB – LTV, upper limit on the credit ratio
- Act No. 6/1993 Coll., on the Czech National Bank, § 45a (the 5% exception from the limit)
- Act No. 257/2016 Coll., on consumer credit, § 117 (early repayment, sale of the property after 24 months)
- ČBA – property price trends, Q2 2026