Construction statistics: Slovenians with wallets wide open

The value of construction created - even if we only consider residential buildings - remains well below pre-crisis levels, as we can see from the data from the National Statistical Office. However, the composition of demand has changed significantly. Although in the early years of this decade, housing construction was mainly financed by legal entities, it is now done by citizens in the individual construction sector. This combined is twice the size of the 2010 investment.

A survey among Slovenian citizens shows that over the next 12 months, 20 percent of the population is thinking about renovating an apartment and 3 percent about buying an apartment. In addition, housing loans to finance home purchases or renovations continue to grow. For comparison: in the first half of 2011, mortgage loans were approved in the amount of more than 800 million euros, for the same period in 2013 and 2014 - about 500 million. are comparable to 2011, and in 2017, mortgage loans were already received in the amount of more than 900 million euros.

According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, the cost of construction commissioned in the first half of this year was 18.4% higher than in the first half of last year. The cost of construction on buildings increased by 37.7 percent, while the cost of civil engineering works increased by 11.6 percent.
Only in June, the cost of construction put into operation at the annual level increased by 21.2 percent and monthly by 12.1 percent.

There are no drastic changes in the commercial real estate market, as in the residential one, but they are, and they are positive.

The largest transaction in the commercial real estate sector this year is the purchase of a business building in Vič, Ljubljana, for EUR 8.7 million.
The building was owned by Imparo and the receivables were transferred to DUTB. He sold all receivables in the amount of 16.5 million euros. DUTB says the buyer is IMFI Gmbh, part of the Austrian holding SLO Beteiligungs Gmbh. The building has thousands of square meters of office space and several garages.
Recently, this is not the first deal on a deal with a budget of several million euros. Heta sold a package of several commercial premises and garages in Situla Rus to Vladislav Levchugov. According to unofficial data, the price is 10.5 million euros (plus VAT).
The ratio of the number of transactions for the purchase and sale of office space in the first two quarters of this year to offers in this sector is 34/100.
The Geodetic Administration has not yet released a report of data for the first half of this year. Time will tell if 2017 can beat the record for a very busy 2015 in commercial real estate sales with 1,998 transactions.
“Nevertheless, due to relatively favorable economic conditions, low interest rates and an increase in the investment attractiveness of real estate, a gradual increase in activity in the commercial real estate market is expected,” GURS noted.