The government plans to sell off many redundant buildings and plots of land owned by the state by setting up its own real estate agency under the Ministry of Interior, with a projected 200,000 m2 expected to be up for grabs all over the country.
Daily Pravda cites interior minister Robert Kalinak if some sale is advantageous, the state would make the sale, referring specifically to the property of some 64 regional administration bodies that are targeted to be abolished. This could end up as much as 200,000 m2 of premises for sale, estimates Kalinak. The daily also cited Radovan Durana from the Institute for Economic and Social Studies (INESS) as saying the centralisation of this kind of power (to the Ministry of Interior) in the public sector could open up more scope for corruption.
The general consensus is that selling off the state’s unused property and land is a good idea, but with so many public tenders being suspect of cronyism, a big question mark hangs over whether such a system would not provide yet another channel for passing state property to the hands of the chosen few.
Market rules work differently here. They are all set to mantain the low quality and general insatisfaction of the society. I stopped long ago wondering why even in the small details like a tiny restaurant, the service is really bad, when would be expected market rules would take the little restaurant to the logic of treating clients good so that they will become a returning business. But this is way too complicated and frustrating. I think what is slovakia needs is high amounts of Valium mixed in the water or Kofola so that the society starts smiling and work for improvement instead of complaining in low constant voice for everything they cannot change like the shitty weather.
~~Daily Pravda cites interior minister Robert Kalinak if some sale is advantageous, the state would make the sale ~~
I have yet to work out why Slovaks always consider their land, or property as such a valuable asset ? Here we are are at the arse end of the EU, people still earning av. 600 euro a month, in a fiscal EU Crises , yet prices for flats in dull, non touristic, Bratislava are still are 20/30 percent higher than in similar parts of Central Europe.Land prices everywhere, even in a sheep field even near the Tatry mountains are still an eye watering high price, even there is no buyers, or real shortage of building land anywhere. Try getting a Slovak to reduce his price and it is like breaking his heart and he would rather hang on to it for twenty years and tell his mates down the pub how much it is `worth`, rather than sell and move on, and all just it case it is valuable one day and his missed out .
George M. If you shop around you can still get some real bargains on the property market. True, many Sks mistakenly believe their property is worth far more that it actually is but greed has not infected the whole of society – yet.
I am sure BA is the greed centre of the country but when you have people who think paying more gets you more there will always be those preying on their stupidity.
Out here in the sticks I can have almost as much building land as I want for Euro 2.00 a square metre and thats with all utilities laid on. We looked at a property in the Tatras – a new, well built, two bedroom bungalow with over 3000 sq. m. of land for less than 40K and the owner is open to offers. Property prices are crashing over here in the east and many Sks are in negative equity or have been forced to downsize by other economic factors and there is no sign of the situation bottoming out. Its definately a buyers market out here and with the poor returns on savings offered by the banks we are considering buying property just to sit on it.
Why, Oh why, is Kalinak adopting, yet again, the most complicated and least transparent method of disposing of surplus public property?
Why not use Public Auctions, open to everyone including the press, where the highest bid, above a reserve, made on the day, gets the goodies?
Does anyone know the details of these 64 regional admin bodies that are to get the bullet? I have not seen any tearful maiden aunts or other non-jobs lamenting the loss of their posts. Is this some unreported policy of the government to actually streamline state administration and make some savings or are these all one man and his dog set ups and the staff are going to be redeployed to some other “overworked” departments?