Bratislava is the most expensive capital in central Europe when it comes to luxury housing, reports a new analysis by UniCredit Bank, the TASR newswire wrote.

Luxury housing in Bratislava was as much as 30 percent more expensive than in other countries in the Visegrad (V4) group (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) at the turn of 2008/09, and was 22 percent more expensive than in Vienna.

"If we look at luxury housing from the perspective of investment, the average profitability from renting is about 4.3 percent for a property, which is under the recognised minimum, or 5 percent," said the bank's analyst David Derenik for TASR. The best investment location within the V4 is Budapest, where the price of luxury housing at €2,120 per square metre increases its profitability up to 6.8 percent. Prague has an average profitability of 5 percent, and Warsaw 4.6 percent.

"In order for an investor in Bratislava to gain the average revenue of other V4 countries, prices would have to fall by 28 percent with unchanged rents," said the analyst.

At the same time, Derenik said that the high price of luxury housing in Slovakia, along with its low profitability, has already been reflected in a cut in prices and it is likely that the weak domestic economy and the lack of interest among foreign investors will push prices of luxury housing down even further.

On average, the most expensive luxury apartment with an area of 120 square metres is located in Monte Carlo, where one square metre cost around €35,000 in the monitored period. The price in Bratislava was €3,770 per square metre, in Prague it was €3,380, in Vienna €2,300, and in Budapest €2,120. TASR

I'm not saying that my PS investment in Bratislava falls in the 'luxury' range but the mortgage broker (for which I had to pay 500 Euros for the 'privilege' of being a PS client - how strange!!!) advises that the complex is being 're-valued'..... that's on top of the conversion to the Euro which turned by apartment from being 125K Euros at the time of purchase into a whopping 149K or thereabouts at current conversion price..... Something else PS never factored in!!!! It will be interesting to see the revaluation figures......

Hi, Which PS project in Bratislava are you in? Rgds., R.

CUBICON..... WISHED IT WAS CUBI.....GONE...

Reading the actual article ...

While it is still a cause for concern, I'm not at all sure that it is entirely relevant to the situation, mainly because the historic centre of Bratislava is so small. I suspect that over time, there will be increasing differentiation between property in the centre and elsewhere. The situations for Budapest, Prague and Vienna are markedly different. Prague has a proportionately larger centre for the size of city, with historic buildings extending out for several kilometers, and Vienna & Budapeat, having been the capitals of the Austro-Hungarian empire, even more so.

I would, however, worry about the long term value of some of the stuff on the outer fringes of the city. In the boom, the whole Bratislava market moved together, with prices going up pretty much uniformly. I suspect that the market will become more complex and differentiated now. There is also a strong reason why rent yields in Bratislava were so low - when the housing market is going up as fast as it did in Bratislava , as interest rates were that low, it maked no real sense to rent if you can buy. So there is no real tradition of well paidlocals renting. Now that we're in a downturn, I expect that the culture will start to change and that is proving to be the case already , as a number of my property is now starting to attract attention of local workers as well as overseas tenants .