Information About Real Estate Investments

Investments in real estate in Slovakia have high financial returns, average growth in prices for RE is above average on the EU market.

In 2019, the average growth of the price per square meter in Slovakia was 11.3% and two-bedroom apartments rose in price in big cities most of all. High growth of prices in that segment was in Košice (+16.7%), Prešhov (+16%) and Bratislava (13.2%).

Here you can check the report of the National Bank for the 1Q of 2020.

In 2020 the forecast of growth was average of 10% but because of pandemics we will know the figures only in the end of the year.

Mortgage rates in Slovakia start at 0.89 and go up to 2%, which makes them ones of the lowest in the European Union, therefore the interest in real estate and prices do not fall even in the times of crisis. The second factor in the stable demand for purchase and rent of apartments is the shortage of housing in Bratislava that still exists. Due to the migration of highly qualified employees within the EU, as well as the increasing number of issued residence permits for third-country nationals, the demand for renting apartments for 1-2 years did not fall even during the pandemic.

Starting July 1, 2020 banks started to provide mortgages on stricter conditions, now the down payment is not less than 20% of the transaction amount. However, they remain loyal and provide the most favorable conditions for the mortgages that attract a significant amount of customer’s own funds – 30% and more.

On average, renting a furnished one-bedroom apartment in a new building in Bratislava starts from 500 EUR + “energie” (combined utilities) which is usually about 100 to 200 EUR per month for housing. In the center of Bratislava, rental prices are 25-30% higher. Given that the average salary in the capital is 1,359 euros (gross) and about 1,000 euros (net), it turns out that renting real estate will take more than 50% of your budget.

With the cost of housing in the region of 150,000 thousand euros, the annual return on rent is about 4.5 – 5% depending on the additional costs, which in any case is highly profitable on the market.

You can read about analytics here (Russian)