Property Prices Compared: Slovakia vs. UK

As the credit crunch starts to bite into its second year, we have decided to offer you a fresh look into property prices in both Slovakia and Great Britain. House prices throughout the UK continue to fall. According to the leading mortgage lender, Halifax, the average house price fell by 1.7 % in July 2008, bringing it down to £218,000. This is a drop of £20,000 (8.1 %) as compared to the same period last year. Estate agents (Nationwide) reported only 36,000 house purchase transactions, which is only a third of the volume of purchases made last year. This is both due to buyers’ difficulties in obtaining finances and to sellers’ reluctance to accept lower offers. On the other side of Europe, Slovakia’s real estate market is facing different challenges. Sky- rocketing prices of apartments in Bratislava have created a gap in the market between luxurious new-build properties and old concrete block apartments. Affordable homes that are attractive to first time buyers have been missing from the portfolio of developers for quite some time. These have started to appear in Bratislava over the past three months, quickly being swallowed by the property hungry market. Regional centres are still benefiting from new high-end properties being built; only awaiting their round of affordable housing to be constructed. The booming market in Slovakia has not fallen victim to the global credit crunch and prices continue to rise. As a comparison of current prices, 1 bedroom apartments in new-build developments in Central London start from £250,000, the Old Town of Bratislava shows prices of comparable properties at the level of £145,000. Moving further from the centre, similar properties are sold for £125,000 in emerging Thamesmead and up to £240,000 in the ever popular Archway. Bratislava shows lowest prices in the outer areas of Rača and Zahorska Bystrica. House prices in regional centres in the UK vary widely. A new 1 bedroom apartment would cost you £179,000 in trendy Cambridge, while in Leicester you could snap up a similar one for only £100,000. The Slovakian market is more level, 1 bedroom properties in a new development in Zilina start at £69,000, in Banska Bystrica at £79,000 and in Kosice at £86,000. There are still some bargains left in both countries. For example: 2 bedroom holiday lodges in the relaxing Devon countryside start from £90,000, 2 bedroom bungalows in green Cornwall from £110,000 and 4 bedroom terrace houses on the fairytale east coast of Scotland from £130,000. Slovakia has ski apartments in Slovak Paradise starting from £30,000 and traditional countryside houses from under £20,000 on offer. By Otília Šimková Photo: iStockPhoto

Audio/Video

Photogallery