The Problems of Real Estate Financing in the Post-Crisis Period in Slovakia

The objective of the paper is to study the changes in the real estate financing in the post crisis period in Slovakia. Slovak transition to market economy enabled to create the booming real estate markets in the 21st century. The FDI inflows and the integration processes, inclusion to Euro zone, were the important catalysts of such progress. Yet the global financial crisis substantially decelerated existing development and revealed the vulnerabilities of the economic growth model, the institutions, public finance and banking systems. The changing macroeconomic fundamentals negatively influenced the real estate vacancies, returns, and investments. The global financial crisis had revealed the serious problems of financial markets, such as the inadequate oversight, and banking regulations. Three new important regulations: Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive, Basel III, Solvency II aim to prevent the risky behavior of banks. Based on them, many banks have implemented very restrictive criteria for the provision of the real estate credits. At the same time banks had to resolve the problems of distressed loans. This is the opportunity for the debt companies, private equity groups, the sovereign wealth funds, the insurance companies, mezzanine lenders and other investors with flexible capital to step into the market and to take the larger role in financing the real estate developments. This tendency is well observed in the developed countries with stabilized real estate markets, good returns or low risk return, while they are less obvious in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region. The consequence of restrictions on the provisions of banking property credits opens the new business opportunities in real estate sector for insurance companies, debt funds, off shore funds, mezzanine funds, private equity funds, etc. The serious problem is still the high public debt, and its negative impact on Eurozone. Many investors had fled from the European periphery into the EU core also because the competitiveness issues of European periphery, including the CEE countries, are not resolved. Recovery of real estate markets in Slovakia is under the way, yet the attainment of the pre-crisis real estate boom is not very probable. Much will depend on economic growth, important institutional reforms, especially in banking, economics, and in European Union as well.