Slovakia was surprisingly slow in regards to opening its real estate market to foreigners, and until May 1st, 2004 a company had to be set up with one controlling member of Slovak nationality before a foreigner could legally purchase property. EU accession changed all this and the market was flung wide open, meaning that now foreign nationals are free to purchase any houses, apartments or other buildings they see fit. The fact that the market only truly opened up recently means Slovakia has a very young property market and prices are sure to rise by large amounts in coming years.

As part of a former Communist state, Slovakia was prone to the same pitfalls as any other former Soviet country – land titles were in contention and needed to be reclaimed, but the deadline for reclamations has long since passed, and though reclamations could still happen with older properties, in line with EU laws and Land Registry regulations thorough legal checks must be carried out before a property is sold, and these checks guarantee ownership of the property even if it later turns out documents were false.