Real estate worth EUR 1.6bn changed hands, with housing prices more or less level.

GURS recorded some 28,000 real estate transactions, which is 2% more than in 2014. Their total value rose by 4% to EUR 1.6bn.

Two-thirds of all transactions involved apartments and family houses, 17% commercial real estate, 12% land and 4% all other types of real estate, GURS says in its report released on Thursday.

Growth continued in the main category of the Slovenian real estate market, sales of apartments, although at a much slower pace. The number of sold apartments was up by 11%, while in 2014 the growth was 35%.

The busiest market was the Ljubljana area and the capital itself, the coast bar Koper, as well as Maribor and Celje in the north-east.

The average price of existing apartments in the country reached EUR 1,440 per square meter, which is one percent lower than in 2014 and level with 2007, the year when GURS started keeping records.

The average price of new apartments topped EUR 2,200 per square meter.

According to GURS, the average prices of apartments dropped by some 25% since the start of the crisis and began increasing in the second half of 2015. They were up by 2% over the first half of the year.

Demand for new apartments has been rising following a standstill in the construction sector.

Last year saw the most transactions with multidwelling units, whereas sales of building plots was at a record low. Sale of commercial real estate was up but remained modest.

GURS noted that the introduction of mandatory energy efficiency certificates in February 2015 failed to impact on the market.