**8. Conclusion**

with a change in the residence of a worker (in economic literature, a migrant is considered a person who stays in the destination region for more than 1 year). Commuting occurs as a rule without a change in the worker's residence (i.e., a worker's place of work and place of

From **Figure 4** we can see the negative trend in the development of rental flats in Slovakia.

to rental housing in Europe is shown by the people of Germany and Austria.

Available cross-country comparisons show that mobility flows in Slovakia are low in international terms. This applies in particular to internal migration, which means to flows connected with a change in the place of residence. The internal migration rate for Slovakia, measured as gross regional outflow as a percentage of working age population is significantly lower than in most EU countries and other advanced economies as well as neighbouring Visegrad countries (see e.g. [17]). According to national statistics, 1.6% of the productive age population

**Figure 4.** The evolution of the share of rental apartments in Slovakia among the total number of completed apartments (in percentage). *Source*: own processing according to data from the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak

Republic [15].

Important is also the fact that social rental housing depends on income. This means that in case of the entitlement of rented apartments, the motivation to earn more money is lower. The reason is the fear that the tenant loses his entitlement to a rented flat. The result of such a situation is reduced incentives to work and thereby a decrease in the mobility of labour. On the other side, the second extreme in Slovakia is a high proportion of persons who have apartments in their ownership [16]. Purchase, respectively, rental of residential property is generally not just a matter of rational economic calculation, but to some extent it is also a reflection of national usage. Within the internationally comparable survey on income and living conditions (Statistics of Income and Living Conditions—SILC) in European countries, it is proven that not only in Slovakia but also in most countries the ownership of the house or apartment is preferred more than rent. In the EU, 28.70% of the population subscribes to the ownership of residential property. However, between countries there are obvious differences. Slovakia clearly belongs to the category of countries where the term ownership of real estate considerably resonates (up nearly 90%). On the other hand, the most significant relationship

residence are located in two different regions) [14].

34 Housing

In this chapter, we tried to discuss the development of housing policy in Slovakia after 1990, some selected issues related to the development of housing in Slovakia and the availability of housing and labour mobility. An indispensable factor in housing development is a welldeveloped institutional environment regarding efficient economic instruments (particularly credit and tax policy) as well as the establishment of the organisations in the housing market.

Finally, we can say that focusing on supporting housing housed by owners with existing tools causes a particular disruption to the real estate market. There are possibilities to help adjust the current situation and avoid future complications. One of them is the redirection of the state aid for housing housed by the owner for financial contributions to housing (housing allowance). This housing policy tool would allow the recipient to choose between a rental and a housed owner. It means that financial contributions could be more tied to income and other social criteria and thus to achieve the more significant resurgence of resources. The strengthening of this instrument in Slovakia is also recommended by the OECD.

The high occupation of flats, the rise of prices and rents and geographic differentiation of wages lead to reduced labour mobility. In Slovakia, one of the obstacles of labour mobility in the labour market is low regional mobility. Comparing internationally, Slovaks move for work much less than people in the neighbouring EU countries. One of the factors that have negatively influenced this condition of the labour market is the low share in the offer of rent housing for various income groups of inhabitants.

In the future there is a need to focus on the simplification of administration schemes of supportive state financing in the field of rental housing, to prepare new financial mechanisms to improve the development of the rental sector in the Slovak Republic.
