Since I started my blog, I regularly receive questions from readers about buying a (second) home in Slovenia. I always try to answer as well as I can because it’s nice to notice that there are quite a lot of people who would like to live here, and if I can help them a bit with that, I’m happy to do so. One of those readers asked if I couldn’t maybe dedicate a post to it. That actually seemed like a good idea to me. Now, of course, I am not a real estate agent, nor am I a civil-law notary or any other kind of »specialist« in the field of real estate. I speak from my own experience, so keep that in mind. I have listed a number of things that I think are important when buying a house here.

First of all: where to look for a house? Of course, there are hundreds of real estate agencies that offer their selection of houses for sale on their own websites. But the vast majority of these brokers also put their offer on the site www.nepremicnine.net. This is the largest real estate site, so checking it regularly is the best way to find your dream home. You can also look at www.bolha.com. This is a site like the Dutch marketplace. Here you will find advertisements from real estate agents as well as from private individuals who offer their real estate for sale.

If you want to live in Slovenia, buy a house and/or start a business, you will first need to apply for an »EMŠO« (personal identification number) and a »Davčna številka« (tax number). You can do this at the municipality (Upravna Enota) where you want to live. As far as I know, there are no (or hardly any) costs involved.

You will then need an address here. This can sometimes be difficult because, in Slovenia, they work with »permanent« and »temporary« addresses. When a Slovenian moves abroad, temporarily or otherwise, they often keep a permanent address in Slovenia, usually with their parents. Their address abroad is then their temporary address. For example, our son is moving in with his girlfriend in Ljubjana. He, therefore, registers there as »temporary« and keeps his »permanent« address with us. We don’t have that system in the Netherlands. When you move or emigrate and you deregister from the municipality, you no longer have an address there. That is why you will only have a temporary address in Slovenia because you cannot apply for a permanent address before you can prove that you have lived in Slovenia for 5 consecutive years. If you have an opportunity to keep an address in the Netherlands (or wherever you are from), for example with family, it is probably a lot easier with all the paperwork.

I also recommend paying close attention to the following:

• Is the owner/seller of the property the sole owner? Sometimes it turns out that one or more family members are partly entitled to a home, and this can cause problems.

• Are there no debts/credits on the property? Any notary should be able to give you this information.

• Is the access to the house through private land. If there is a road or path that is co-used for neighbors or other villagers, I wouldn’t do it. This brings trouble many times.

• Does the house have the correct papers/building permits? Here you still regularly see that a house has been built »black«, meaning without a permit. If you then want to renovate or something like that, you will have problems with it and you must first have it legalized, which in turn entails a lot of time and costs.

• Have the contract translated by an official translator before signing it to make sure it doesn’t contain anything »abnormal«.

Hopefully this information has been useful for some, and otherwise, you have learned a bit more about how things go in Slovenia ;). If you have any other questions about this piece, please do not hesitate to contact me via email (arlette.cundric@gmail.com) or Messenger (Arlette Cundric-van Driel).