Rise in property prices accelerates

The third quarter brought unexpected results on the Slovak real estate market. The rise in property prices accelerated significantly in the third quarter, according to Nehnutelnosti.sk. Two-room flats are more expensive by an average of 9.38 percent year on year and 3-room flats by up to 11.96 percent. Bratislava and its surroundings remain the strongest market. In particular, recent projects have brought to the market apartments with price tags of €6,000 - 8,000 per square meter. This is one of the reasons why the price of a three-room flat in Bratislava's Old Town has increased by almost 25 percent as compared to the previous year, to an average of €310,000. Three-room flats in Prešov and Trenčin have recorded a 20 percent increase in prices. "Due to the low number of places on offer, buyers are willing to pay ever higher prices. This is also helped by the high availability of cheap mortgages, whose interest rates have already dropped below 1 percent," say the analysts of the website Nehnutelnosti.sk. The paradox is that prices have fallen in the two-room apartment segment in Košice III and Nitra.