Slovakia Economy

The Slovak economy, over the last few years, has been a star performer in Europe. GDP growth rates have been (and still are) on a par with those of China (9-10%).

EU membership in 2004 brought stability, reform and investment to Slovakia. The government introduced a flat rate tax of 19% and pushed hard to attract foreign investment - which is has done with great success.

Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic, has one of the highest rates of FDI per capita in Europe. Foreign companies have been attracted to Slovakia by the cheap yet skilled workforce, tax incentives and its position in the centre of Europe.

The automotive industry has been a particularly large investor in Slovakia, pumping billions of Euros into the economy and creating thousands of jobs. On top of that other manufacturing and IT service companies have founded a base in the country. All of which has helped to stimulate the phenomenal growth in the economy.

Unemployment has been traditionally high in Slovakia, but has been falling year on year and is now at around 6%. Wages have been rising by as much as 10% per annum in some sectors, and this wage growth is continuing, yet still has a long way to go before wages reach those of Western European levels.

The falling unemployment and rising wages (particularly in the cities) is resulting in there being more people with more and more money to spend, and inevitability some of this money is being spent in the property market.

The stellar economic performance of Slovakia over recent years has taken a little while to fully feed into the nation's property market, however, since 2007 prices have started to rise by around 20% per annum, and we see this trend continuing into the near future.

With such strong economic fundamentals buying property in Slovakia is good bet for a medium to long term property investment strategy.