Analysts: After the real estate market downturn, demand is growing again

Bruchánik believes that while uncertainty is still present in the market, the majority of the population considers buying an apartment to be a long-term and safe investment.

Economic uncertainty in connection with the spread of COVID-19 has caused demand for apartments to slow down. The downturn in the Bratislava real estate market was visible mainly in April, but in May, buyer interest is growing again. This was reported by Rudolf Bruchánik, chief analyst at Bencont Investments. The increased nationwide interest in apartments was also confirmed by the Nehnuteľnosti.sk portal, which has recorded significantly higher traffic to real estate portals since the beginning of May. "Nehnutělnosti.sk recorded a 60 percent increase in traffic compared to March results, when measures against the spread of the new coronavirus were launched in Slovakia," the portal reported, adding that the demand for real estate itself was more than 100% higher in May than in March, and buyer interest has therefore almost reached the level before the corona crisis.

As the real estate portal added, from 430,000 views per week in March, they recorded an increase in the last week of May to over 700,000 views. "These are almost identical numbers to before the outbreak of the pandemic," the portal stated.

"People have clearly not lost interest in real estate. We believe that their rapid return to our websites, as well as the growing demand, are the first sign of a rapid recovery of the entire real estate market in Slovakia," the portal's analysts noted.

In recent weeks, according to data from the real estate portal, people have searched most for family houses, across the whole of Slovakia. “The Bratislava region dominated the most with 17% of searches, followed by the Trnava region with 10%. In addition to family houses, the top 10 most searched properties also included two- and three-room apartments from the Bratislava region, which occupied the third and fourth places,” added the portal’s analysts.

Bruchánik believes that although uncertainty is still present in the market, the majority of the population considers buying an apartment to be a long-term and safe investment. “In the event that a part of the population gets into serious financial difficulties and is forced to urgently sell their property below the current market price, there may be a slight and short-term price drop for apartments (in Bratislava) on the secondary market,” Bruchánik concluded, adding that in the long term, given the limited supply and low construction of new apartments in the Slovak capital, he rather expects a further increase in prices.

source: https://www.teraz.sk/ekonomika/analytici-vypadok-na-realitnom-trhu-bo/469151-clanok.html, 25/05/2020