(source: Sme)
Compared with other countries of the OECD, real estate taxes in Slovakia are low. Slovakia’s revenues from this tax made up only 0.4 percent of GDP in 2014, while, for example in Hungary it was 0.6 percent and in Poland 1.2 percent. In western countries these numbers are even higher.
Finance Minister Peter Kažimír indicated already in 2012 when he was taking up his post that real estate tax rates may increase and that luxury housing would be taxed more. But for doing so he needed price maps to find out which residential properties are luxurious and which are not. In Slovakia real estate tax is calculated based on the area of a given real estate, the Hospodárske Noviny economic daily wrote.
Finally, the Institute of Financial Policy (IFP), a governmental think tank at the Finance Ministry, has designed a calculator to calculate prices of residential real estate. It revealed it on March 9.
Th results of the calculator are rather informative given that the scheme uses old data and limited inputs. The data used are advertised offer prices of residential real estate in 2011 and 2012, but the IFP plans to update them. In calculating values, the IFP utilised the database of reality.sk, that also the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) uses for its calculations.
When interpreting a property value that the calculator generates it is necessary to take into consideration that the model does not reflect the development between 2013-2015, does not contain all characteristics affecting the price of the residence, and except for Bratislava and Košice, it estimates the value of a square metre for the whole town or municipality.
The calculator also takes into consideration only materials from which a house is built, but not the extent of renovations, as buyers look into this as well, given the price may change when there will be a need to take a loan for reconstruction.
“We did not have this information at disposal,” said Rastislav Gabík of IFP as cited in the online edition of the Sme daily. “As we write in the manual, there are a lot of variables affecting the price of apartments. Alas, we did not have access to all of them in order for us to include them into the model.”
For now tax rates on real estate remain unchanged.
“There is room for higher real estate taxes, but this should be compensated by reduction of income taxes in order it pays for people to work more and use assets actively,” Peter Goliaš, director of the INEKO think tank told Hospodárske Noviny.
How to use the calculator
Here are the instructions and vocabulary for better use of the calculator at www.institutfinancnejpolitiky.sk:
Zadajte názov obce – Insert the name of the municipality, in case of Bratislava and Košice it is necessary to insert also the name of the borough and the street
After selecting the municipality, fill in the following fields
Obytná plocha – Floorage, in m2
Balkón – Balcony, in m2
Lodžia – Loggia, in m2
Terasa – Terrace, in m2
Výťah – Lift, áno/nie – yes/no
Poschodie – Storey
– here you can choose from three possibilities: prízemie - ground floor, medziposchodie – each storey between the ground floor and top floor, podstrešie – top floor
Stav bytu – Condition of the apartment
– here you can choose from four possibilities: novostavba – new construction, čiastočná rekonštrukcia – partial reconstruction, kompletná rekonštrukcia – complete reconstruction, pôvodný stav – original condition
Konštrukcia domu – construction of the house:
– here you can choose from three possibilities: tehlová konštrukcia – brick construction, zmiešaná konštrukcia – mixed construction, panelová konštrukcia – panel construction
After filling in all fields, click on the Vypočítať – Calculate button. The calculator will give you cena/m2 – the price per square metre and celková cena bytu – total price of the flat
