Analyst: In Bratislava a mortgage payment on an apartment is 900 euros, rent 800. In Nitra the ratio is reversed

A two-room apartment in Bratislava, bought with an eighty-percent mortgage, comes with a monthly payment of around nine hundred euros, according to a financial analyst's model example — while the rent for such an apartment in the same example comes to eight hundred. In Nitra, the same calculation comes out the other way round: the payment is around six hundred, the rent around seven hundred. According to the analyst, the difference is therefore not just a matter of the market as a whole, but of the specific city. Pravda ↗

The mistake beginning investors make

One of the most common mistakes, according to Marián Búlik, a financial analyst at OVB Allfinanz Slovensko, is an oversimplified calculation. "People tell themselves: I'll take out a mortgage, the payment will be 700 euros, I'll rent the apartment out for 800, so I'm up 100 euros. But it doesn't work that way," he said on the ta3 program Investujeme. The owner must deduct from the rent contributions to the repair fund, insurance, the cost of routine repairs, and taxes — and also account for periods when the apartment stands empty. Net income is only what's left after that. Pravda ↗

It's just as easy to be wrong in the opposite direction. The cost isn't the whole payment, only the interest — the rest is repayment of the borrowed money. Búlik therefore recommends that, at today's rates, borrowers take out as much as possible from the bank and over as long a period as possible, but with a reserve of at least six monthly payments plus roughly another two thousand euros for essential repairs. Pravda ↗

It is precisely this leverage that new rules are set to limit from January 2027. The National Bank of Slovakia is to reduce the maximum share of financing from the apartment's value, for people buying a third or subsequent property, from eighty to seventy percent. An investor would have to put in more of their own money or borrow the missing part at a higher cost. Some buyers won't be affected by this — those who pay in cash. Pravda ↗

Why the ratio comes out better outside the capital

The average rent for a two-room apartment is highest in Bratislava out of all of Slovakia, but apartment prices are even more disproportionately higher. For an older apartment, that's roughly 4,400 euros per square meter in the capital versus 2,800 euros in Nitra. "An attractive regional city with job opportunities can be a better option for an investment apartment than Bratislava," Búlik summed up. According to him, Košice and Trnava also offer a more favorable ratio than the capital. Pravda ↗

Within Bratislava itself, the price per square meter also varies by apartment size. Older one-room apartments and studios have climbed above 5,100 euros per meter, while three-room apartments remain at around 3,900 euros. According to the analyst, smaller apartments are usually easier to rent out, but they carry a higher price per meter and tenants in them may turn over more often. Pravda ↗

The daily SME writes more bluntly on the same day. According to SME, the math has stopped working out, and financing an investment property with a mortgage is a dead-end path that generates losses. In a second piece from the same afternoon, it also compares an apartment to securities and asks why investment apartments shouldn't be entirely written off. SME ↗, SME ↗

European Commission proposes a law, Czechia considers a tax

The Slovak calculation doesn't stand alone. On September 9, the European Commission presented a draft law on affordable housing, meant to be the first common European framework for assessing measures in this area. According to Eurobarometer, more than fifty percent of city residents in the Union consider the lack of affordable housing an immediate and urgent problem where they live. For now it is a proposal that still needs approval from both the member states and the European Parliament, and it explicitly mentions the pressure from rentals in tourist destinations. Trend ↗

Read also: Brussels proposed rules to restrict Airbnb. A Barcelona apartment association invoked them against its own city's plan a day before publication

In Czechia, investment apartments are discussed mainly in connection with taxation. The news site e15 writes that Andrej Babiš is considering higher taxes for their owners, although according to the paper this wouldn't significantly help the state coffers. So far it's just a consideration, not a submitted proposal. Czech Television, meanwhile, described new trends in the same week — garages are a hit, and domestic investment apartments now face competition from abroad. e15 ↗, ČT24 ↗

Limits of this view

This is one analyst's model example, not a market average. It's missing three assumptions that move the results the most: what interest rate and repayment term are being assumed, what period the price-per-meter figures come from, and whether the rent includes utility payments. As context, Pravda cites today's rates of around three and a half percent, but doesn't specify the model's exact rate. A different city district, a different loan amount, or a different apartment condition would give a different figure. At the same time, Búlik isn't saying that an investment apartment doesn't make sense — only that it can't be calculated by guesswork. Pravda ↗

Illustrative photo: Petržalka, Bratislava. Author: Marc Ryckaert (MJJR) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0.

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