The Changing face of the foreign buyer.
It’s July 2006 and Real Estate agencies across Slovenia like mine are running to keep up with the ever increasing British buyer happy to pull, squeeze and drag as much equity from their UK home to fund their dream of owning a holiday home in this little gem of a country. The Austrians and the Italians amongst others are dipping their feet in the cool mountain water too, snapping up a more southern retreat, and of course the mighty Russian investor has just discovered Slovenia has a coast and a pretty nice one too! Straightforward times, we as agencies know our market, we enjoy our job and we sell - and pretty easily too.
Its July 2009 and the landscape is different, very different, we have gone through a year or more where the market was not a market it was a desert, the British buyer had shrivelled up, desperately trying to pay their own mortgage and credit in a struggling Britain, let alone thinking of paying another one in a foreign land. The Austrians and Italians quickly realised they could buy the same holiday home for half the price but it was located in Austria and Italy! The Russian buyer, he carried on buying but less and less as the coast of Slovenia became a price comparison or should I say competitor for St Tropez and Cannes!
Thankfully its now July 2011 and we can now begin to see through those dark clouds and the market is now a market again, actually a series of small, compact, easy to predict groups of investors that know what they want and what they will pay for it.
At my agency Slovenia Estates we have four distinct groups now of investors which does ebb and flow but is now pretty certain and secure.
The British buyer has returned, not by any means to the same levels pre 2008 but they are back, looking to buy their dream house in the beautiful and safe Gorenjska, a three bedroom, two bathroom character house with some land and views is just the ticket and with a fair amount out there its relatively easy to satisfy their demand. They usually don’t want to spend more than €200.000 and if they really want to pick up a bargain they will head East to Prekmurje, still a favourite for a specific market within a market, meaning the British buyer that buys in the East is very very different to one that buys in the West.
The Austrians and Italians now fall into a “Rest of Europe” category. They have been joined by some newcomers, the Belgians, Dutch, French, Swedish and Finnish have all been our clients in the past 18 months. Their budget is the same as the Brits but they don’t go East! They like the older house, one they can renovate is a popular request and the Dutch and Belgian buyer likes land.
The Americans, they too have begun to wake up to the delights that Slovenia has to offer and with lower property prices now they are drawn to Bled and Bohinj, this could be something to do with a little TV show we did for US TV last year that some 17 million Americans watched,,,don’t worry they are not all coming. We have had clients re locate here for retirement which always says a lot of the quality of life somewhere. The American buyer will typically spend a little more for the right property, typically around €350000 but are quite particular about what they want and rightly so. Tending to go for more traditional properties and those in need of a little work.
Ok so now the buyers our sellers love to hear about, the Russians…Well first let’s correct the common misconception about this buyer; they don’t come to Slovenia with €3m in their back pocket, looking for the biggest, brightest place in town. No, they are very astute when it comes to buying, very particular, they know what they want and they know about prices in Slovenia as a comparison with other countries, they have most likely looked in Croatia or Montenegro and have now set their sights on Slovenia. They tend to be attracted to newer properties, or older ones that have been refurbished internally. The budget? We have had clients spend €200,000 as a minimum up to €2m but the average is around €400.000. Typically in past years they would head for the coast and while there is still the attraction for them near the sea, we have sold properties all over Slovenia from Prekmurje and Celje to the mountains of Kranjska Gora and of course Ljubljana.
So these are the main groups of investors right now, there are signs that new ones are emerging from such places as Israel, South Africa and The Middle East - the wealthy bits! But overall across all markets the quantities are still in the few hundreds so no one needs to start learning Russian or Arabic just yet!
