Prague 3 investigates top official Tünde Bartha over possible unauthorised sublet of municipal flat

District opens investigation

Prague 3 city council is looking into the tenancy of a municipally-owned flat in Žižkov held by Tünde Bartha, head of the Government Office of the Czech Republic. The 70-square-metre apartment is officially rented by Bartha, but she and her family do not live there. Instead, it is occupied by two university students from Slovakia, a situation the district says may amount to an unauthorised sublet. Councillor for housing policy Ondřej Rut (Green Party) confirmed that he had obtained the case file and that the council would take a position after analysing the history.

I asked for the file on that flat. We are looking into it. Once we analyse the history, we will adopt a position as the district council.

Bartha pays around 11,000 crowns a month for the apartment, a figure that rose from roughly 9,258 crowns until May. The Ministry of Finance estimates the market rent for a flat of that size in the same location at about 28,000 crowns, nearly triple the amount Bartha pays. If the district determines that an unauthorised sublet has occurred, the tenancy could be revoked.

Bartha denies wrongdoing, cites family ties

Bartha told Deník N that the arrangement is not a commercial sublet and she receives no income from it. The two students are, she said, related to her family and were properly reported to the Prague 3 housing registry. She sees their presence as a benefit because it keeps the flat occupied.

Lots of people misuse municipal flats on Airbnb, but nothing like that is going on here. It's a family relationship, and it helps me that the flat isn't empty.

The flat costs us roughly 19,000 crowns a month, depending on gas and electricity. It's not even particularly cheap.

The head of the Government Office – who earns 130,000 crowns a month – said she does not think it is wrong to keep the municipal tenancy, arguing that pressuring her to give it up now that she has a higher income is unfair to her daughter, who she hopes will return to live there.

Long-standing ties to Andrej Babiš

Bartha has worked with former prime minister Andrej Babiš for many years. She led his office when he was finance minister (2014–2017) and later served as director of the prime minister's cabinet department. Between 2018 and 2021, she first headed the Government Office during Babiš's premiership, and she returned to the post when he regained power. In 2024–2025, she was a senior manager at Babiš's Agrofert holding, overseeing development in Hungary and other eastern European markets.

Bartha owns another flat in Prague 8 and two properties in Hungary. She currently splits her time between Hungary and a rented apartment in Průhonice, a town near Prague, that belongs to Imoba, a company owned by Babiš. Her husband and daughter are also officially registered at the Žižkov address but do not live there.

Echoes of another housing controversy

The affair draws comparisons to the recent case of Zuzana Mrázová, the minister for regional development (ANO), who was also found to have held onto a low-cost municipal flat long after her financial situation changed. Seznam Zprávy documented that Mrázová had been using a municipal flat in Bílina since 2009, even after becoming mayor and later a minister. The two cases together have fuelled criticism over the continued use of subsidised public housing by officials from the ANO camp.

Are you telling me that just because I now have a higher salary for a while, I should leave the flat where my daughter and husband are registered? When my daughter comes back from her studies, am I supposed to tell her: 'Sweetheart, the journalists think it isn't ethical?' That is terribly unfair.

The district council has not yet set a deadline for completing its review. Rut noted that such cases are often ambiguous and that it is too early to say whether rules have been violated.