The battle for rentals continues on the real estate market in Kosice.

The year 2023 brought significant challenges for many individuals seeking to secure housing. With soaring interest rates, purchasing property has become an unattainable dream for the vast majority of Slovaks. The rental market in Košice faces its own set of struggles as the demand for rental apartments reaches critical levels.

On the flip side, rental prices saw a sharp rise. Beyond the burden of unaffordable mortgages, landlords capitalized on the limited availability of rental properties. Coupled with increasing energy costs, many property owners were able to raise monthly rents.

In 2022, the monthly cost of renting was 9% lower than a mortgage payment. By 2023, this gap had widened dramatically, with rental costs now standing 32% below the average mortgage repayment. Renting has quickly become the only viable option for most, leading to growing queues for available apartments as the year-end approaches. Despite this, experts from the Real Estate Union of the Slovak Republic predict that drastic price hikes in the rental market are unlikely.

The increase was double-digit

"When the bank doesn't approve people's mortgage or they can't afford to pay it off, they are dependent on renting. However, the limited budget they have for housing holds them back even there. So, although the number of people interested in renting may increase next year, prices will not reach dizzying heights. The course will continue to include fully furnished apartments in new buildings located in interesting locations with good surrounding infrastructure and transport accessibility.

Among the regional cities, according to the data of the union, the most expensive rents are in Bratislava, Košice and Trnava. The comparison is complicated by regional differences in pricing practices. Year-on-year rents mostly increased towards the end of the third quarter, we saw double-digit growth in Trnava, Košice and Prešov.

In the case of the capital city, approximately 80 percent of rents are concentrated in four city districts. Staré Mesto is the leader among them, the other three are adjacent to it. They are Ružinov, Petržalka and Nové Mesto. Two-room apartments are most often rented.

The requirements for real estate agencies are increasing

It might seem that in the current period of critical lack of real estate, the path to finding a tenant is relatively straightforward. In the case of landlords, however, the practice of many brokers confirms that a large part of them expect from the real estate agency other services than just finding a tenant and mediating the signing of the lease agreement.

Košice city center rental apartments offer dozens of different additional services that increase the comfort of the tenant, for example furnishing the apartment according to the tenant's requirements, ensuring the revision or repair of appliances, changing or extending the rental relationship and many others.

A good choice of tenant affects the quality of the whole tenancy relationship. No landlord is interested in wasting time dealing with unnecessary problems. The good news for the landlord, however, is that many threats of tenant misconduct are predictable.

The trend has turned around, two-bedroom apartments are no longer the most popular for rent. Every 50 euros plays a role.

• Real estate portals were filled with new offers of apartments for rent.
• In Košice, the trend has turned from two-room apartments to smaller units.
• There are several dozen people interested in viewings, but in the case of monthly installments, they are increasingly cautious.
• Despite the current increasingly high prices, we think that rents have not yet reached their ceiling.

Interest in rentals does not subside even during the holiday season. "We published the ad just before Christmas, but despite that, many interested people came forward. There were no viewings during the holidays, but four people came during the first viewing day, and we have another nine planned for the next few weeks. He is talking about a two-room apartment on Továrenská Street in the Old Town .

The well-lit apartment with an area of ​​58 square meters is located in a popular location, near the tram, bus stop, but mainly right in the heart of the historic center. For a fully equipped unit with a loggia, together with utilities, utilities and a parking space, you will pay 900 euros per month, which for two people - compared to many other advertisements - is a lower amount than in other places.

However, in the current situation, taking into account the situation on the mortgage market, apartment owners can ask for more.

Every 50 euros plays a role

However, the trend has turned. "Until recently, everything indicated that two-room apartments would be the most sought-after, which are rented relatively quickly, especially if they are attractively furnished and the price is set well. Now, however, one-room apartments for rent are gaining popularity. We recently had one on offer on Štefániková Street for 790 euros, up to 40 square meters, and in two days, 20 interested parties came forward. People prefer them, but at the same time, there are few of them. However, every 50 euros plays a role."

At the turn of the year, the market is struggling with the strongest onslaught, as many tenants' existing contracts are coming to an end, and one- and two-room apartments are the most sought-after goods for a long time. However, with a small offer and a large number of interested parties, it happens that the apartments disappear from the offer within a few days, and in the case of an agreed inspection, there is only a small chance that the first clients will pass the apartment on to another twelve who have also expressed interest.

For a better illustration, we also looked at the data of the Market Reports application, which conveys more detailed information from the real estate portal Nehnuteľnosti.sk. In the case of the Košice - Staré mesto district, there were 93 active advertisements for studios and one-room apartments in the last three months, with a median price of 580 euros. However, the data does not include data from the property description, in which brokers or owners often state the price for utilities or parking separately. In such a case, the average price for 30 square meters in a better apartment building can rise to 800 euros.

"The pricing depends on the nature of the owner, but we try to explain to our clients that it is more profitable for them to rent an apartment in Košice city center rental apartments, despite the seemingly higher rental price. At the same time, however, we try to choose carefree tenants, as we have also had experience with problematic by tenants, mainly due to non-respect of housing regulations and non-payment of rent on time.

Price tolerance increases with novelty

In the case of two-room apartments, there were 165 active advertisements in the mentioned part of Kosice over the last three months, with a median price of 820 euros. For this group, the broker records that the maximum amount of up to a thousand euros, including energy, is currently acceptable on the market. The ideal scenario is if parking is included in the price. Apartments over a thousand euros, on the other hand, are sought by a minority type of clients, who are mainly looking for locations in the Old Town and require the services offered by our complex

"These are, for example, lawyers who rent an apartment for one week a month in a new building or in an apartment that has not yet been occupied and they do not mind if they pay 1,300 euros per month. However, such clients are very few and difficult to find, and almost all of them end up in Kosice City Center Rental Apartments as number one in premium housing in Košice.

People are willing to accept the limit of 750 to 800 euros for average two-room apartments, especially if it concerns the age group of 22 to 30 years. However, this is an amount including energy.

We think that rent prices will continue to rise this year, mainly due to the unavailability of mortgages and apartment prices. More and more people are resorting to renting, as they cannot afford a mortgage. I don't want to scare people, but I expect an increase of five to seven percent year-on-year. Last year, this number in Kosice was at the level of 13 percent.

However, it should be added that apart from Kosice, Bratislava or Žilina, according to the expert, the commercial rental market does not exist practically anywhere else, because there are not enough apartments in the other regions and they are not that lucrative. "At the same time, I think that these regions will copy the price development in Bratislava," he concluded.

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