More than 35% of Slovaks were interested in buying a flat and over 33% were looking for options to buy a house in the third quarter of 2016, according to information provided by the nehnuteľnosti.sk property website. This means that an increasing number of Slovaks would rather buy a home for themselves than rent one. The largest demand for properties was recorded in the capital and biggest city, Bratislava, where over a fifth of visitors to the website nehnuteľnosti.sk looked for a flat or a house. The largest city in eastern Slovakia, Košice, came second with almost 5.5% followed by Trnava, a town close to Bratislava with many new industries, which received almost 4.5% of searches. Slovaks remain interested in purchasing property in spite of continuing growth in the prices of flats. In the third quarter of 2016 they were 5.5% higher than in the same quarter the previous year. A survey of a thousand respondents conducted by the TNS Slovakia agency found that over three quarters of people who were considering buying properties planned to search for options on the internet.
According to Daniela Danihel Rážová, the owner of a firm of estate agents, 2016 was one of the most successful of the last eight years for selling properties. "Cheap mortgages have caused demand to outstrip supply, which is causing a steep increase in property prices and a shortage of flats on the market at the same time." At the end of December, the National Bank outlined plans to impose tighter rules for providing mortgages to keep this trend under control.
