Housing

Steps

Renting

1. Require a written lease: the housing law (Stanovanjski zakon, SZ-1) requires written form (art. 84). It may be fixed-term or open-ended and must at least describe the home (area, building cadastre identifier), name the landlord and all occupants, set the rent, the service charges and how they are paid, and restate the grounds for termination provided by law (art. 91).
   • Deposit (varščina): SZ-1 sets neither an amount nor a ceiling for a private letting; only the sub-letting of a home of the Public Housing Fund provides for a deposit of one month's rent (art. 148.e). The amount is negotiated: have it written in the lease, with its conditions of return.
   • Rent: a rent that exceeds the average market rent in the municipality for a comparable home by more than 50% is an "usurious" rent (oderuška najemnina, art. 119); you can ask the municipality to check your rent (answer within 15 days, art. 120).
2. Check the area: the address declaration may be refused if the home offers less than 8 m² per person, if it has no dwelling number or if it is not intended for habitation.
3. Declare your address (prijava prebivališča) within 8 days after your residence registration certificate is handed over, with the lease or other proof of your right to occupy the home (see SI-SEJOUR-TOUS-001). You can sign the lease and move in before.
4. To leave, unless otherwise agreed in the lease, you can terminate at any time without a reason, in writing, with 60 days' notice (art. 102). Then declare your new address: the old one ends automatically. The landlord can also deregister your temporary residence without your agreement.
5. If the landlord wants to end the lease, they need a ground provided by law or by the lease (for a market-rent home, art. 103 and 105), a prior written warning with at least 15 days to put things right (except in the case of sub-letting without their consent, where they can go directly to court), and notice of at least 60 days; in case of disagreement, it is the court that decides, and it sets a move-out period of 30 to 60 days (art. 112). For unpaid rent or charges, the procedure is faster: after a written warning, termination takes effect on its notification, and the court can order the home to be vacated within 30 days (art. 112.a).

Buying

1. Check the property in the land register (zemljiška knjiga) and the status of the land; for agricultural land, an authorisation from the administrative unit may be necessary.
2. Sign the sale contract: it states who pays the transfer tax.
3. The seller files the tax return with the FURS office for the place of the property within 15 days after signing, with the original contract.
4. Pay the tax; the FURS issues a certificate of payment.
5. Have the seller's signature certified by a notary and register in the land register: both require the certificate of payment of the tax.

Documents

• Renting and address: identity document, residence registration certificate, lease or other proof of the right to occupy the home, address declaration form.
• Buying: original sale contract, proof of the seller's ownership if it does not appear in the land register, municipal planning document for undeveloped building land, certificate of payment of the transfer tax.

Costs and timelines

• Deposit: no amount set by law for a private letting (to be negotiated).
• Statutory notice (if the lease says nothing else): 60 days for the tenant; at least 60 days for the landlord, and only for a legal ground or one provided in the lease.
• Declaration of the lease: a private landlord no longer has to declare lettings to the real estate market register (ETN) since the ZMVN-1 law: they declare rents to the tax administration in their annual income return. Companies and sole traders who let, or a company that lets to an individual, declare each lease of at least 6 months before the 15th of the following month (E-prostor).
• Indicative rents (EURES): about €850 to €1,100 per month for a two-bedroom flat in Ljubljana, about €630 in Maribor, about €500 in Prekmurje, service charges extra.
• Prices (EURES): more than €3,000 per m² on average for an existing home in 2025, nearly €4,900 in Ljubljana.
• Transfer tax: 2% of the value (sale price if it corresponds to market value). The seller is liable, unless the contract puts the tax on the buyer; in that case, only the buyer pays it.
• Seller's capital gains tax: 25%, then 20% after 5 years and 15% after 10 years; nothing after 15 years. Exemption for the sale of a home or a house (two homes at most) that the seller owned, where they had their permanent residence and where they actually lived for at least the last 3 years.
• After the purchase: the buyer may owe the building land use charge (NUSZ) and the wealth tax (davek od premoženja, governed by the national law on individuals' taxes, amounts revalued each year). For the NUSZ, the FURS refers to the register of municipal acts: the rules and amounts are local.
• New home sold by a professional: the notary tells you the VAT regime that applies to your purchase.

Common pitfalls

• A home too small for the family. Under 8 m² per person, the address may be refused, and without an address many procedures are blocked.
• Forgetting to declare your address within 8 days. It is what triggers automatic registration in the tax register (see SI-NIF-TOUS-001) and determines the school of your catchment area, depending on your temporary or permanent residence (see SI-ECOLE-TOUS-001).
• Not specifying in the contract who pays the tax. Without a clause, it is the seller; if the buyer takes it on, write it down.
• Signing without a certificate of payment. Without it, no certification of the signature and no registration in the land register.
• An oral lease. The law requires writing (SZ-1, art. 84); to declare your address, you need a lease or other proof of your right to occupy the home (agreement of use, consent of the owner); also have the amount of the deposit and its conditions of return written down, which the law does not set.
• Notice without a ground. For a market-rent home, the landlord can only give you notice for a legal ground or one provided in the lease, after a written warning: read the list of grounds in your contract carefully.

What changes by country of origin

• Citizens of the EU, EFTA (Swiss included) and OECD countries (United Kingdom included, Scotland included): no reciprocity decision needed to buy.
• EU candidate countries (North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia): positive reciprocity decision from the Ministry of Justice, administrative fee of €22.60.
• Other countries: purchase not possible, except by inheritance in case of reciprocity.