When to Expect More Deals on the Housing Market Again?

There are still more than 100 projects on the market, all differing in price and locality. The most numerous category of apartments for sale are the categories of two-room and three-room apartments, which comprise 67% of the total number of apartments on offer. In 2009, only three new projects were introduced: Jantár Jarovce, apartments Vinohrady and apartments Pegas in Koliba. In total, the market currently has more than 5,800 apartments for sale. Furthermore, some of those apartments have been added to the list of apartments for sale because the original prospective customers failed to obtain a mortgage or they changed their mind about the purchase of an apartment for another reason. There are also apartments that did not attract enough customers and, therefore, the developer decided to halt their construction indefinitely.  
 
The demand for new housing posted a sharp decline over the last six months as a result of the winter period, euro changeover, negative development of the economy and not very promising prospects. Customers under the influence of the media are requesting reductions, which developers cannot afford to provide. The demand is currently represented primarily by those who really need somewhere to live or those who really can afford to buy an apartment. The biggest demand is thus still for small categories of one-room apartments and 2-room apartments or universal three-room apartments. Nearly as attractive as two-room and three-room apartments seem to currently be older apartments whose prices are lower sometimes even by 30%.

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New apartment prices neither increase nor decrease. Individual discounts or discounts in the form of a parking lot, kitchen facility or symbolic discounts from the price are offered primarily by developers in the luxury segment. 

The apartment prices on the market, which range from 1,400 EUR/m2 without VAT to 5,500 EUR/m2 without VAT, do not represent such a wide range of products. The price mostly reflects the location of the apartment, namely its distance to the city’s centre. The highest prices are in those projects situated in Koliba and Palisády, or along the Danube River. The cheapest apartments are on the periphery of the city’s districts of Dúbravka, Vrakuňa and Petržalka. The current development, however, indicates that the price difference among these localities should lower. As Bratislava is not such a big city, the price differences among the outskirts of the city and the centre should become smaller in the future.

At present, the development of sales more or less copies the curve of the gross domestic product. As a result of this, we can expect that based on the prognoses of the economic development, apartments will not be sold faster than they are now until the year 2011. However, the quality of the current offer shows the lack of apartments, which would reflect the requirements of buyers. From this point of view, we can assume that the market is still large enough for those projects that offer a good product at a good price.  

On behalf of Lexxus, a.s.

Author: Ing. Filip Žoldák, Business development and research manager
Photo: iStockPhoto

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