Average Bratislavans can afford smaller flats compared to other citizens. (source: Sme)
Housing affordability in the Bratislava Region is the lowest compared to the remaining seven regions of Slovakia. This is true for employees with an average monthly wage of €1,360 and average prices of residential real estate. While the average wage in this region is 39 percent above the national average, the average price for one square metre of real estate is 117 percent higher than the average, specified VÚB bank analyst Andrej Arady.
Zdenko Štefanides, chief economist at VÚB bank, indicates that this disqualifies the region from the viewpoint of affordability of housing.
“With a mortgage accounting for 80 percent of a real estate’s value and with an installment accounting for one quarter of the income, a person from the Bratislava Region can acquire residential real estate size equalling roughly one half of the real estate that a person in the Trenčín Region can acquire under the same conditions,” said Štefanides.
Real estate prices per square metre increased in Slovakia by 20 percent over the last three years. The situation differs from region to region. General prices of real estate in the regions of Prešov, Košice, Banská Bystrica and Trenčín lag behind the pre-crisis maximum.
