.
Living
in Slovakia
By Maryanne
Vermeulen
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..- April
2006
| For
about 7 years we have been searching the world for a place to live an easier,
less constricted lifestyle, longing to find a more basic and natural
way of life than in our home country Holland. During those years we have
visited other western countries like Australia, Canada, and the US only
to find out that the rules for immigration are so restricting. This
is understandable from their economic point of view: wanting your labour
or your money, but to us this would have meant less freedom instead of
more.
In other EU
countries like France, Spain, Italy the price of real estate has risen
so much, bureaucracy has become so overbearing and getting a renovation
done is so complicated. Following the implementation of the Euro
in our country, general life has become so much more expensive, that we
felt even more we wanted to get out and find a place where you can still
get a decent value for your money.
After watching
a popular daily English emigration TV-show: "a place in the sun”, where
people with similar ideas are followed on pursuing their dream abroad,
we were intrigued by the beauty and prices of land/real estate in Eastern
Europe, especially Slovakia.
So off we went
in November last year, not the best time but for research, but quite good
considering there was less competition from other buyers.
Slovakia is
divided into 8 self-administered regions, each having its own capital:
Bratislava, Trnava, Trencin, Nitra, Zilina (western Slovakia), Banska Bystrica
(central Slovakia), Kosice and Presov (East). Bratislava and Kosice are
cheap flight airports for airlines like Sky Europe.
Public transport
is excellent, if you want to get away from the car culture. Every little
village has public bus service connecting it with the outside world.
The north-
western part we did not like particularly, a bit gloomy and still too much
a feel of the communist oppression for our taste. The high Tatra Mountains
although amazingly beautiful, were too cold in winter and have a too short
summer season for us.
Most of economic
life is still concentrated in the Bratislava area, followed by other main
western Slovak cities. These areas are also likely to be of most interest
to a property investor. The reasons are simple – solid economy, growing
investments (foreign as well as domestic), excellent infrastructure, favorable
business environment. Along with relatively low unemployment and higher
prosperity of the population makes Trnava, Zilina, and to a lesser extent
Trencin and Nitra into exceptional markets for those looking for untapped
opportunities. Prices are low with little competition and there are potentially
high returns. Trnava and Zilina are perhaps no longer a secret tip in Slovakia,
but are still practically unknown abroad.
Both of these
historic cities have lots in common:
- great
infrastructure and accessibility (air, road, and rail)
- fast
growing economy
- rich
history, culture (as well as being main university towns).
After 3 weeks
of traveling the country, feeling and trying to decide on what would be
a good area for us, the southwest area around the town of: Levice - Nitra
district (www.nitra.sk), a relaxed small sized town, situated in the midst
of wine fields and to the north: mountains for skiing, walking, biking
and general outdoor life. This area has a Mediterranean atmosphere, without
the price tag. So you have the best of both worlds, with all-season holiday
opportunities.
With a combination
of shops like Tesco's and the wonderful display of rural products, great
wines, vegetables that still have the original flavour from days long gone
in our western overproduced society, we also felt good about the food issue.
Can you remember tasting something simple like broccoli or potatoes so
wonderful and rich, you do not want/need any sauce on it to make it taste
like anything?
Everywhere
there are these rural markets with people selling their own grown produce:
fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and nuts.
In Slovakia
it is not easy to be a vegetarian, people love their meat and again a simple
piece of chicken is like with the vegetables, very rich in flavour.
Slovak people
are very open and ready for a talk or inform you, even though the language
is a barrier. But the younger generation is learning to speak English and
is eager to communicate. This is one of the reasons we felt so welcome.
Remember this
has been a communist country since the early 1950’s and only opened its
borders since 1992. So meeting westerners is still sort of an experience
to them, depending also of course on which part of Slovakia you are in.
Slovakia has a rich history from before the communist days with beautiful
architecture.
But what really
won our hearts over are the Spas, a great way to stay and/or get well.
Spas are a
naturally ingrained health tradition in Slovakia.
Doctors here
are highly trained, actually so are most people we met, being engineers,
chemists, doctors, since education was free for everybody in the communist
days.
Their approach
to solving health problems is a natural and more sustainable one. Instead
of chemical medication, one goes to a Spa and spends a few days or weeks
depending on your health problem. Every Spa has a specialty: like skin,
heart or respiratory problems. Prices which include room, board and treatments
are very affordable indeed.
What a great
way to stay or get well again, this together with the clean air and beautiful
surroundings of the locations of the Spa, the body and mind gets an enormous
health boost. After spending a day in a Spa we felt this would be a great
country to settle.
Slovakia will
convert to the euro currency in 3 years, so prices are sure to go up.
Slovakia has the fastest economic growth in Europe, exceeding expectations,
despite the general European slowdown.
Slovakia suffers
from a shortage of properties - there are 359 properties for every 1,000
inhabitants; which, after exclusion of cottages, vacation houses (i.e.
properties not suitable for year round residency) and uninhabitable properties,
means just 317 housing units for 1,000 inhabitants. -
Article
Continued Below - |
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West Indians, Blacks from the UK and Canada -- Paris is home. When
Melinda Herron first came to Paris twenty years ago, she wanted to know
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music, where you could buy foods like sweet potatoes, corn meal and black-eyed
peas. Even though she thoroughly enjoyed Paris and all it had to offer
culturally, it was essential somehow to get a taste and feel for "back
home." So, just like many sojourners who arrive in a new city, it became
important for her to connect with other Blacks in order to transform that
feeling for community in a living reality. |
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Article
Continued From Above -.
The average
number of properties in Europe is 400 per 1,000 inhabitants. Slovakia's
long term plan is to achieve the European average.
However, with
current new housing construction of 12-13,000 new properties a year, it
would take more than 20 years to achieve this goal. At present there is
a shortage of over 220,000 housing units and also number of existing properties
(from the communist days) will become uninhabitable in the medium to long
term.
The Slovak
property market continues to offer some of Europe's best opportunities
with low prices and healthy and solid growth (for the right type of property
in the right area). And, of one thing you can be sure: as virtually all
property sales are sold to locals, and 95% are owner occupiers in their
(family) apartment or house, so you will always be able to sell your property
on to a Slovak buyer, ensuring a safe exit.
In Slovakia
real estate agents are a relative new phenomena, since people are used
to selling and buying their property by themselves, which is also a factor
that is making prices more than reasonable. But of course the language
is a barrier.
So far finding
an English speaking agent has been an exception, especially in area's that
are not too touristy yet, like the mid south western part, near the Hungarian
border.
However in
Levice we ran into a perfectly English speaking real estate agent, not
too eager, but very pleasant who had some houses that might be of interest
to us.
We found a
small white L-shaped farm with 5000 m2 land with a well, un interrupted
view on forested mountains, including a piece of forest that caught our
interest. However it had no modern heating or plumbing. But nothing beats
the charm of an old farm house with stone walls 60 cm thick and old beams,
situated in a small village of 100 people and on the Route Magistrala (an
international hiking route that goes through Slovakia and with the prospect
of a ski lift in the near future, we got even more interested.
It was situated
16 km from historic tourist places like Banska Stiavinica and in a UNESCO
world heritage protected area, making it an very interesting property with
investment potential well worthy of further investigate.
Of course we
were unsure about the general condition of the house, but a contractor
was happy to come with us the next day and made a very detailed quote and
description of the
labour and
time involved. We were constantly pleasantly surprised by the "yes" attitude
we encountered with everything and every question we had, even by civil
servants our questions were immediately taken and dealt with seriously,
an attitude so unlike we encountered in countries like France.
Most houses
in Slovakia are in good shape and the cost of renovation is very do-able.
The average labour cost is (still) very low compared to other EU-countries.
Bureaucracy has been almost not existent so far. After the quote we got,
we decided to buy and our offer was accepted. We paid a small deposit,
the same day we went to the notary, paid a small fee and signed all the
papers with the real-estate agent. He took care of the paperwork
with the Kadaster
for a small fee (the seller pays all costs) and 2 weeks later we got the
officially signed and stamped papers in our mail. The smoothest sale we
could imagine.
In a couple
of weeks we will return and start renovations, if you have any questions
regarding relocation or real estate in Slovakia please e-mail
us.
....
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where the Black hair salons were, where you could go to listen to Black
music, where you could buy foods like sweet potatoes, corn meal and black-eyed
peas. Even though she thoroughly enjoyed Paris and all it had to offer
culturally, it was essential somehow to get a taste and feel for "back
home." So, just like many sojourners who arrive in a new city, it became
important for her to connect with other Blacks in order to transform that
feeling for community in a living reality. |
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