The article analyses the general situation of housing estates in the Czech Republic. It briefly discusses their history, current transformations, and social acceptance. It also draws attention to some special features in the behaviour of these environments, and thus indicates possible challenges to planning their future management. The article is a summary of the theoretical part of our recent book, Housing Estates, What Next?, which is the result of a project of the same name, carried out at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague from 2014 to 2016.