Whether a bank will finance a cottage depends on how the land registry lists it

You can get a mortgage for a holiday cottage (chata) or a country cottage (chalupa), but the bank will assess it more strictly than a loan for the flat you live in. The land registry entry decides. A country cottage registered as a family house counts as residential property for the bank; a cottage registered as a building for family recreation (stavba pro rodinnou rekreaci) is a recreational property.

For recreational property expect to put in more of your own money. The 90 % LTV exception for applicants under 36 applies to buying your own home, so the ceiling is 80 %, and banks' own rules often lend less. You usually cannot deduct the interest from your taxes either. On a CZK 3,000,000 country cottage, the gap between 80 and 70 % is a full CZK 300,000 of own funds. Adding a flat you already own as security often helps.

How do you know what the bank will see?

Look at the title deed extract (list vlastnictví). You can view it free of charge in the ČÚZK's online land registry viewer (Nahlížení do katastru nemovitostí). Each building has a stated use, typically “family house” (rodinný dům), “building for family recreation” or “family recreation” (rodinná rekreace). The bank classifies the property by that entry, even if in fact you live there all year round.

The entry can only be changed through the building authority, which has to approve a change in the use of the building. To qualify, the recreational building has to meet the technical requirements for a dwelling, for example on heating, insulation or waste water. If you plan to do this, do it before you apply for the mortgage, not after.

How much of your own money will you need?

Pledging the flat you live in has one drawback: if you stopped paying for the cottage, the roof over your head would be at stake. How additional security with another property works, and how to release it later, is explained in Additional security for a mortgage.

For a cottage at CZK 2,500,000 with own funds of CZK 750,000 (30 %), you can calculate a cottage mortgage over 20 years straight away. Replace the 5 % rate in the calculator with your bank's offer.

What does the valuer look at with a cottage?

• Access. Is there a paved road to the cottage, and is access legally secured? If it crosses someone else's land, you need a right of way (služebnost cesty) entered in the land registry. How banks treat easements is covered in Easements and a mortgage.
• The land under the building. Banks finance a cottage on leased or someone else's land only in exceptional cases, because they want both the building and the land as security.
• Water, electricity and waste water. A well or a mains connection, a cesspit or a small treatment plant. Without electricity and water both the value and the banks' interest drop sharply.
• Condition and year-round use. Age, construction, roof, heating. An uninsulated summer cabin gets a lower valuation.
• Saleability. A location where cottages change hands regularly is safer security for the bank.

Valuing a cottage takes longer, because the valuer has to visit and trace the access and utilities. Allow for this in the deadlines of the reservation and purchase agreements.

Will a bank give a mortgage on a mobile home or a tiny house?

Only if it is firmly fixed to the ground and registered in the land registry as a building. A mobile home on wheels or a chassis that can be moved is not an immovable thing (§ 498 of the Civil Code), and the bank will not take it as collateral. Česká spořitelna says plainly that you will not get a standard mortgage on such a mobile home.

A tiny house on footings or foundations, with a building permit, an entry in the land registry and a descriptive or registration number (číslo popisné or evidenční), can usually be financed with a mortgage. Komerční banka, for cottages in general, wants the property registered in the land registry with one of those numbers. Otherwise you are left with a consumer loan, or an American mortgage secured on another property.

Do the interest deduction and ČNB rules apply to a cottage?

The interest deduction under § 15 of the Income Tax Act applies to housing where you or your close family live. A weekend cottage does not qualify. If you live permanently in a country cottage registered as a family house, though, you can deduct up to CZK 150,000 a year. Tax offices are formal about this, so be ready to prove you live there.

Since 1 April 2026 the ČNB has recommended stricter parameters for investment loans: an LTV of no more than 70 % and a DTI of 7. This covers the third and every further residential property, and properties bought to let.

If you want to let the cottage and have the bank count the rent as income, it will treat the cottage as an investment. Whether the cottage counts towards your number of properties is for the bank to judge. The recommendation is not law, but banks follow it.

A mortgage or a smaller unsecured loan?

For a cheap cottage costing a few hundred thousand koruna, a mortgage with a valuation and a land registry entry may not be worth it. A consumer loan is quicker and needs no security, but it is dearer and has a shorter term. The amount from which a mortgage makes sense is discussed in Small mortgages up to CZK 1 million.

If you are buying a plot and will build the cottage yourself, financing the land follows different rules from a finished building. A recreational building is not a housing need, so watch out for the interest deduction. The details are in Mortgage for land.