Are you planning to move to Bratislava? Were you staying at friends or relatives and now need to find something on your own? Finding a room to rent in our capital can be tricky unless you know where to search, so here are some useful tips which will make the room hunt a bit easier for you:
Ask on Facebook
This is usually how people do it here especially with flat sharing. There are different Facebook groups that focus on room rentals and flat sharing, also in English, as there are many internationals living in Bratislava. Very often we see friends or colleagues posting in these groups and it looks like the most efficient and cheapest way as you don’t need to pay any commission (which is usually the amount of the monthly rent).
If you are moving to Bratislava, try to post to these Facebook groups:
- Accommodation in Bratislava
- Flatshare in Bratislava
- Bratislava apartments & flats
- Life in Bratislava
- Bratislava & me
- Foreigners in Bratislava
- Expats in Bratislava
- Bývanie a prenájom BA (living and lease in Bratislava)
- Podnájom, prenájom, ubytko (rent and accommodation)
- Prenájom bytu v BA (renting of flats in Bratislava)
- Bratislava na prenájom (Bratislava for rent)
Using an agency
Getting in touch with an official real-estate agency might come in handy when you are interested in renting a whole apartment, flat or a house, as these are slightly more difficult to find in the Facebook groups. Please note that it is almost always the tenant who pays the commission to the agency and not the landlord. The usual process is as follows:
- Browse through the specialized portals until you find an interesting property
- Contact the agent whose contact details you find
- The agent will arrange a meeting with you and the owner of the property
- If you like the place (and the owner), you sign a contract and pay a commission to the agent (usually in the amount of the monthly rent)
- To start, you will need to pay at least 2 months rent to the owner (one as a deposit to be used in case you cause any damage to the property – this will be returned to you once the contract terminates)
Useful links which are also available in English:
- realestates.sk
- real-estate-slovakia.com
- 4expat.sk
- byty.ba
- reality.sk – used by the locals very often
- 4expat.eu
It can also happen that a landlord advertises his property without involving the real estate agencies but these re-advertise his property on their sites – in such case, if you find the property through the agency, the commission is payable. If you want to avoid real-estate agencies, it is necessary to communicate with the landlord directly and answer his listing directly – in such cases the landlord usually states in his ad “nie som RK” or “nie som realitná kancelária” meaning “I am not an agency.” Older generation of the Slovak landlords might however not speak English or might not have a bilingual lease agreement. In such cases it is probably better to use the services of the agents, particularly of those who speak English.
