Mikuláš Cár, National bank of Slovakia, Slovak Republic

Pages: 31 – 43

Abstract

Slovakia is known within Europe for having one of the largest shares of its own housing. Recently, rental housing has been a very frequent topic due to the overall worsening of housing affordability. It is often argued that increasing the share of rental housing would however promote labor market mobility and possibly reduce the upward pressure on housing prices. There are many questions in this regard, however, there are only marginally relevant answers even in view of the absence of reliable official rental data. According to the unofficial data available, mainly flats are rented in Slovakia. In this paper, we will try to create at least an approximate idea of the state of rental housing in Slovakia and in its individual regions. We compare the theoretical costs of own average living in a flat with the costs of living in a rented flat. Such an economic perspective significantly determines the household decision-making on the way of addressing housing and thereby further perspective of rental housing in Slovakia.