Name of company: ECCORE s.r.o.
Statutory representative: Viliam Servátka
Total debt outstanding: 563,48 € / 16 975,50 Sk

Construction has been one of the hardest hit sectors during the ongoing economic turbulence. And with the fall of the government in Slovakia, the European sovereign debt crisis and more negative economic news recently, industry players expect that the sector could continue to contract in 2012 as well.

Last year investors brought about €400 million to Slovakia’s real estate market and additional investments as well as the transfer of several properties from developers to investors can be expected for 2012, said Tomáš Hegedüš, managing director of CBRE in Slovakia, on February 9 when describing Slovakia’s current real estate market. He expects that Slovakia may witness increased interest by investors in 2012, focusing primarily on quality office buildings and shopping centres. CBRE estimates that commercial real estate investments in all of Europe will reach nearly €130 million in 2012 and nearly €150 million in 2013.

The average price per square metre of residential real estate was €1,236 in the final quarter of 2011, a drop of €12 from the previous quarter, the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) announced on February 2, based on information provided by the National Association of Real Estate Agencies of Slovakia (NARKS).

In recent years Bratislava has lost a number of historical industrial buildings and preservation activists are now concerned that the capital could lose another site called Cvernovka, several buildings on Páričkova street nearby the main bus station where thread was formerly produced. The Club for Protection of Technical Historical Monuments, the Bratislava Otvorene initiative, the Design Factory and other organisations concerned with architecture and protection of historical monuments have called on Bratislava mayor Milan Ftáčnik as well as Dušan Pekár, the mayor of the Ružinov district, and other city representatives to take steps to preserve this historical site, the SITA newswire wrote.

The approach to Slovak banks in financing new real estate projects has not changed much since 2008 and since the arrival of the financial crisis banks have retained consistently tight lending conditions for developers.

The Aupark Tower office building adjacent to Aupark Shopping Center changed hands in December. Its developer, HB Reavis Group, sold it to Heitman European Property Partners IV for €85.6 million, the SITA newswire reported.

The construction of Košice’s largest housing development called Terasa (Terrace in English) started 50 years ago, primarily to accommodate employees of the new steelworks then called Východoslovenské Železiarne and now named U.S. Steel Košice (USSK).