Bijou Bratislava Joins the Ranks of Overseas Property

Let’s start off with a fact, Bratislava enjoys the unusual accolade of being the only national capital in the world that borders two other countries, 62km from Prague and being just 60 kilometres from Vienna, they are said to be the world’s two closest capital cities, it is no wonder therefore that our misconceptions of this former communist eastern bloc country were instantly shattered upon arrival in this self confessed ‘little big country’s’ capital city in Slovakia’s South West.

Bratislava more than lives up to its nickname of ‘Beauty on the Danube’, it has it all, baroque architecture, gothic churches and simple old world charm which fuses effortlessly with contemporary Bratislava, wifi cafés and smart office blocks sit alongside modern shopping outlets offering everything from bagels to though the window dressing does seem to be lagging in the eighties somewhat!

After 4 hours steadily cruising through scenic Austria, marred only by a rather lengthy traffic jam due to motorway improvements, we enter landlocked Slovakia around 6ish. First things first, when driving in Eastern Europe in particular, I subscribe to the Spanish theory that nothing is handed to you on a plate, it not obvious and yes you do have to ask. Luckily, a little extra time spent perusing the RAC website researching the wild and wonderful driving requirements needed for travel into Eastern Europe various member countries; I noted the need for a motorway driving sticker. Our immediately priority upon entering Slovakia was to obtain this necessity since it was duly not offered to us at passport or customs control. The only warning is the first service station road sign we nearly sail past which I quickly note apart from all the usual roadside services offers ‘motorway vignettes’ (nálepka cestna) for sale. So we continue on our journey en route to Bratislava, feeling very smug, all motorway stickered up and what we felt was an astronomical 150skk lighter having failed to checked the prevailing exchange rate, only to later find out a 7 days pass cost us just 2.50 or 500 for 1 month, phew!

Apparently the motorway sticker system is something of a scam whereby if you are stopped without one you can face quite a hefty but (negotiable!) fine I hear, so my advice, save yourself the time having to do a deal in Slovakian! Just a half hour from the border we reach the centre, arriving sans hotel with the intention of couchsurfing, a great way to get to grips with a place in the hands of a charitable yet experienced local, discovered courtesy of the timesonline travel section, unfortunately our host to be proved to be overly subscribed so we plumped for a nearby central hotel though I have since discovered a more authentic local pension option.

Driving into Bratislava is majestic to say the least over the imposing spacelike UFO Bridge which keeps a watchful eye over Bratislava’s guests to be as they enter the city. The outskirts of most cities house the high rise and Bratislava is no exception, much like west London as you head out on the A4, indistinguishable tower blocks dominate the skyline and are a stark reminder of Slovakia’s former communist days and are home to some 46,000 of an estimated 450,000 Bratislavans reputedly making it Europe’s largest housing estate!

The city centre however is a complete contrast with cobbled streets underfoot give the newbie visitor the feel of a quaint European city whilst the signs for Tesco’s 9 mins away are a subtle reminder that Bratislava is very much in the 21st century.

Naturally, Slovakia and Bratislava itself is still developing slowly but surely, prices here very low by comparison almost 50% lower than those of western standards but the day we arrived the local English language Slovak Spectator was reporting the Kermnica, the country’s historical minting town was getting ready to mint euros as Slovakia is poised to start using the euro on January 1, 2009 having received permission to start printing on June 15 when the country signed a memorandum with the member states of the Euro zone.

When it comes to Eastern European countries the sure-fire way to gauge a country’s popularity is by its tourism levels and unfortunately in particular its popularity in the stag and hen stakes. Bratislava is still up and coming in stag and hen terms thank the lord, but cheap prices, being a relatively small city and home to a sizeable student population translates to a great nightlife on tap and brings together the perfect ingredients for the ideal stag/hen do. Whilst the city is being touted a great pre-wedding getaway, the Bratislavan tourism authorities fully understand the implications of opening the city up to this kind of tourism and thanks to some unpleasant experiences within the city and having watched the stag/hen effect on neighbouring cities of Budapest and Prague, they are keen to play down Bratislava as a stag/hen destination, to the extent that the local tourism authorises have started offering incentives to tourist agencies to book family and smaller mixed travel groups over larger single sex parties by subsiding the cost of the reduced number of people which points towards a desire to maintain a level of quality in the type of tourism that Bratislava wishes to attract.

Directly opposite from the Presidential Palace, we park up in the spanking new Tatracentrum shopping mall and enjoy a much needed 50skk coffee and subsequent free internet in the very handy wifi café for our on the fly hotel booking. After a freshen-up at the very lovely hotel, we meet with our host-to-be Brandon, a pro-couchsurfer who has enjoyed the view from no less than 6 of Eastern Europe finest sofa offerings. He meets us on Bratislava’s main shopping street and we head to the locally renowned and much frequented Slovakpub where we learn he’s an American, who moved to Bratislava motivated by a desire for a better lifestyle and to escape the blandness of the States for a place with a little more soul.

One of Europe’s newest cities since 1993, Bratislava is full of soul, a petite city with a big heart; it fans out from both banks of the Danube River, which crosses the city from the west to the south-east. Bizarrely it is twinned with Ho Chi min city and Larnaca among others and is the principal political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia and therefore the wealthiest and most prosperous as a region accounting for 26 of the national GDP in 2002.

According to recent reports, Slovakia is very much the economic poster child posting 8.3 percent GDP growth in 2006 which reached its highest level since 1996 and unemployment is down by its lowest level since 1998. The economy is largely being propelled by investments and the finance ministry expects growth of 9 percent in 2007.

Bratislava region the only area of the country to record a wage average above the national mean which can be mainly attributed to the fact that financial institutions tend to congregate in capital cites.

Slovakia holds great appeal as an investment destination, in particular with German companies and is growing in popularity with the Chinese despite an overall dissatisfaction with corruption, legal certainty and infrastructure. Among the biggest German investors in Slovakia are Volkswagen, Ruhrgas, and the E.ON energy firm. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in its recent survey on entrepreneurial attractiveness for 2006-2010, ranked Slovakia 24th among 82 countries. Comparatively, in Central and Eastern Europe, Estonia scored the best ranked 20th, followed by Slovakia, the Czech Republic came in at 27, Slovenia 31, Hungary 33, Latvia 34, Lithuania 35, and Poland came in 37th. Slovakia continues to remain in FDI favour and last year, foreign direct investment (FDI) to Slovakia increased by Sk20.123 billion (€537 million), according to a report from the Slovak Statistics Bureau, the largest proportion of which went to Bratislava. Earlier this year, Samsung, the Korean electronics giant announced plans to build a 400€ million LCD module factory in western Slovakia, the third largest FDI the country has ever won and Samsung second investment after Galanta a 100 million euro project which today employs 3,150 people, this new project has the potential to create over 6000 new jobs in the longer term. In recent years, a number of high tech and service companies have prospered in Bratislava, IBM, DELL, Lenovo, AT&T and Accenture to name just a few have build outsourcing and service centres here or plan to do so in the future.

Economic prosperity bodes well for Slovaks as stronger growth in wages drives up domestic consumption along with cheap credit consumption as Slovaks look to invest in property or move up the wealth ladder.

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