Slovakia Property

D

deeper

Guest
Hi,

I am looking at investing in Slovakia, probably in Bratislava area but have also received information on another area Banska Bystricia.Wondering if anyone has any experience of these areas and what rental market is like?

Thanks
deeper
 
I gave a lot of thought to Bratislava, and made many exploratory visits there over the last ten years, but I'm not convinced at all regarding residential property there. Some investors, like Sean Mulryan, are going in there very strong, but I wouldn't like to be a small player there.

On the plus side, Bratislava is close to Vienna, and a steady enough stream of Austrians go there on Friday afternoons and saturdays to shop. Tesco bought the old communist department store several years ago and it is a goldmine for them, with a good percentage of Austrians coming throught the door at weekends. There is a need for good small commercial in this area and probably in the future around where Mulryan is building, for rent to gift shops, phone shops etc. Such places are hard enought to find though.

If you take a walk up the hill to the schloss and look across the river, you will see a huge communist era housing development of high rise apartments. This project has some of the highest rates of divorce, suicide, unemployment, depression etc in all of Europe, and you need to be a far away as possible from it if you are looking to buy residential.

The other problem about apartments in this city is that they can be as expensive as Prague or Budapest, mostly because foreigners are prepared to pay these prices, but they just don't compare in investment terms.

My advice is to be very careful what you buy in Bratislava, and to avoid residential if at all possible.
 
I have two residential apartments in BA I (Stare Mesto). I am reasonably optimistic about their prospects. Bratislava is the dominant city in Slovakia, and the Slovakian economy is growing (I believe) faster than any in eastern europe.

One tip though is to buy only in the first district if you want to let it easily. You can only reasonably rent to foreigners in Bratislava and they will want to stay in BA I (the locals would far rather buy, and will not pay the kind of rents you are after anyway). There are many new build developments going up in BA II which have been heavily sold to investors, and they may struggle to find tenants.

When I bought my apartments last year I was told by several locals that the vast majority of apartments were sold to slovakians and owned by slovakians. Investors were not a major influence in the market at that point. Maybe things have changed - I don't know.

Another thing I heard recently is that seller in Bratislava have become awkward, and will put up the prices after an agreement has been reached. This happened to me once - I just walked away, but it cost me the legal fees.