“They are attracted by beautiful nature, however, predominantly because they view Slovakia as a safe market with high expected growth in value, which offers good return on investment“. The Right Move Abroad.com Ltd is one of the most successfull international real estate agents incorporated in the UK. The company started as a web portal and gradually transformed into real estate agents. In last two years they mediated the sale of property valued at EUR 90 mil. in total (more than 3 billion SKK).

Tatras pushing Bulgaria out?

While apartments located in Prague flooded British market three to four years ago, Slovakia had to wait for its chance for longer. Many British only know Bratislava and they often have no clue where Slovakia could be. “About a year ago, smaller individual investors started to be interested in apartments in Bratislava. We have been contacted by several smaller or larger British estate agents“ says Lucia Langer from estate agents Area RK. “We have worked with British estate agents. Their clients were interested in smaller, quality apartments to rent them out.“ says Jana Šajgalíková from WOS Reality. However, Jeremy and Michael from The Right Move Abroad.com Ltd came to look for something different – holiday properties.

They were motivated by their own positive experience. In four weeks from the moment they put holiday apartments in Telgart, Low Tatras, on the market, Slovakia became their second best selling country after Italy. Slovakia managed to push out traditionally more sought after investment destinations, such as Bulgaria and Romania.

Fresh wind for investment

British and Irish investors mostly belong to a very specific group. They belong to more adventurous investors, especially in attractive holiday resorts – they like to buy off-plan and look for “fresh wind“ in a sense. They widely prefer to buy properties under construction to already existing ones. More than a third of properties in holiday resorts get sold before the spade hits the ground. Real estate investment is so popular in the UK that there are three dedicated TV channels broadcasting 24/7. Alpha and omega of investors' preferences is good accessibility and excellent location – in practice it means close to the airport, holiday resort outside windows and ski-lift in front of the door. Appropriate quality of the development, building materials used and price are also important. The owners of The Right Move Abroad.com Ltd regard the range EUR 1 500 to EUR 1 700 (SKK 50 000 – 57 000) per square meter as acceptable for British and Irish investors. Another requirement of mainstream individual investors is a complete property management solution including letting services during the tourist season, when the owners are not spending their holiday there. Most sought after are therefore apartments of the hotel type and complete apartments with a kitchen. British and Irish buyers are using the opportunity to use Slovak mortgages to finance the purchase.

Why did it take so long  for Slovakia?

Currently, Bulgaria and Romania enjoy the highest interest of the UK investors. “One reason is the fact that developers in Romania and Bulgaria offered higher commission to estate agents than Slovak ones“ say Jeremy Casey and Michael Johns. Having higher commission, estate agents can invest more into advertising and marketing, that play a great role when it comes to attracting clients.  If Slovakia gets on the UK market, it has all prerequisits to become one of the real estate stars. Apartment house 30 km south of Poprad in Telgart, started to be sold by the developer Telgart Development on the Slovak market at first. “Prices of apartments start at 1.1 mil. SKK and we sold 60 % of the development. Then we started to work with the British. We sold the rest of the development in 4 weeks“, says Ivan Poprocky. The first one to sell was the most expensive apartment. Foreign buyer paid more than 3.5 mil. SKK for it. Many buyers relied on the estate agents when it comes to location. Only some of them visited Tatras before they bought the apartment.

There exist other reasons why there is not enough information about Slovakia in the UK. “When I visited Slovakia the first time, I was surprised how many ski resorts are there and how few developments are being built in them. Then, when I came back to Britain, I could not believe how complicated it was for a British tourist to book a holiday in Slovakia“, says Casey.