Or: how "easy" it is to find housing in Brno

Everyone's looking for a place to live — some want to rent, others want to buy. Small, large, houses, flats. There is supply, but... the demand is such that if you don't respond right after a listing goes up, you don't stand much of a chance. Those chances drop depending on who you run into — some people pay the deposit and agency fee at the viewing just to secure the place; others have it arranged in advance with the agency — which won't come cheap — so anyone else is simply out of luck; and then there's the inside deal, a friend keeps it for you... try finding anything in that environment.

On top of all that, Brno has outrageously high agency commissions — I'm not sure what for, since the contract is CTRL+C and CTRL+V, and when they're supposed to negotiate something for you they tend to side with the landlord instead. Not all of them behave that way — but we unfortunately had that experience.

Bottom line, finding housing is not easy at all. It takes luck, landing a decent landlord, and earning above average — because it's not cheap.