However, international mortgage brokerage, Conti Financial Services (CFS) warns advisers to tell buyers they should look before they leap at prices as low as £15,000 for a three-bedroom country house in Slovakia.
Simon Conn, senior partner with CFS, said: “It is a fact that, in some states, the necessary legal frameworks and lending services are not in place to a degree that will safeguard those wishing to buy there.”
Meanwhile, predictions that EU immigration to the UK will kick off another buy-to-let market boom have been quashed by property specialists.
Professor Michael Ball, professor of urban and real estate economics at the University of Reading, said the likelihood of inward immigration from the accession countries has been hugely overstated.
“On that basis, I do not think that EU accession will have much affect on the UK housing market,” said Ball. “In any case, what migrants there will be are not likely to come with large deposits for house purchase or even earn high enough salaries to pay large rents.”
Ten accession countries to the European Union
The Czech Republic
Cyprus
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
The Slovak Republic
Slovenia
