Country Guides Country Guides: Slovenia

Date Published:

02/06/2008

Renowned for its beauty, this former communist state has lots to offer.

By Gordon Miller

Slovenia is modest almost to the point of anonymity. Seldom does one hear headline news emanating from this erstwhile communist state, a part of the former Yugoslavia, from which it gained a peaceful independence in 1991. Located in central Europe where the Alps and the Mediterranean meet the Pannonian plains and the Karst, on the borders of Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy, Slovenia offers beaches, mountains and a stylish capital city in Ljubljana.

A small country, which is home to just under two million people (10 per cent of whom live in the capital), Slovenia punches above its weight economically. A member of the EU since 2004, its economy has been consistently one of the best performing in the Union in the past half decade. The 2008 GDP growth of 4.1 per cent was amongst the best of the EU 27 countries.

Credit: Slovenian Properties Ltd

Underlining world opinion that views Slovenia as a safe country that has made a successful transition from socialism to a market economy, Slovenia’s modernising government has privatised the country’s economy, stabilised inflation and wage growth, halted rising unemployment, strengthened its currency, relaxed the flow of capital and modernised its taxation system.

Similar to elsewhere in Europe, house prices have increased steeply in recent years. GlobalPropertyGuide.com reports apartment prices in Ljubljana, increased by 14.3 per cent in 2007. Prices in the suburbs of Ljubljana rose by an average 14.7 per cent. Inevitably, the global slowdown of the last year has quietened the market, but there are few signs of a property market crash as evidenced in other corners of the world.