House prices up 14.38% during the year to Q1 2021

House prices in Slovakia rose strongly by 14.38% in Q1 2021 from a year earlier, a sharp improvement from the previous year’s 5.66% growth and its strongest annual growth since Q2 2008. On a quarterly basis, real house prices increased 3.49% during the latest quarter. Slovak house prices have been rising since 2014.

 

Demand remains strong.  

Despite the pandemic, property demand, both from local and from foreign investors, remains fundamentally strong.

Total outstanding housing loans rose by 8.8% y-o-y in March 2021 to about €34.46 billion (US$42.16 billion), following annual growth of 9% in 2020 and 9.7% in 2019, according to the European Central Bank (ECB). Despite this, Slovakia still has one of the lowest mortgage-debt-to-GDP ratios in the EU, at less than 38% of GDP in 2020, far lower than EU 28’s ratio of about 50%.

Rents, rental yields; moderate yields at 4.53% 

Bratislava apartment costs are low at around €2,911 per sq. m. 

Slovak Rep: typical city centre apartment buying price, monthly rent (120 sq. m)
	Buying price	Rate per month	Yield
Bratislava	€ 349,320	€ 1,320	4.53%

Recent news: The Slovak Republic’s economy shrank by 4.8% during 2020, its first contraction since 2009, due to COVID-19, but grew by 0.3% y-o-y Q1 2021, according to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. The European Commission expects Slovak Republic to grow by 4.8% this year and by another 5.2% in 2022.