Once you’ve decided that turning a fresh page is the way to go and that moving to Slovenia will be the next chapter in your life, it’s time to start hunting for rental apartments.
Since moving abroad can be stressful enough as is, we want to make your job as simple as possible. In that spirit, we’ve designed a complete step-by-step guide to finding an apartment in Slovenia, info-packed and as practical as possible. Rent prices in Slovenia’s cities range between $200 and $800 per month, depending on the location, size and quality of the home. The process of finding an apartment or house in Slovenia is fairly straight-forward once you know what to expect.
Below, we’ve outlined the exact process on how to go about finding a rental apartment or house in Slovenia:
1. Research and decide on a location to rent an apartment in Slovenia
Before you start looking for an apartment in Slovenia, you need to decide where exactly you want to live. As a general rule of thumb, the big cities tend to be more expensive than the countryside, and Slovenia is no exception in this regard. If you are moving to Slovenia with your job and your location is already decided, than you may skip this step. Otherwise, the first step towards your next home in this beautiful country is to get to know a little bit about every region and its major cities and discover what are the most popular regions in Slovenia for expats and retirees.
2. Browse real estate listings in Slovenia
Once decided on your location, it’s time to search for apartments for rent in Slovenia. Thanks to the internet, apartment or house hunting in Slovenia is in many regards very similar to that we are used to in other Western countries. The most popular and largest website where Slovenian nationals and expats alike go to find a place to live is Nepremicnine.net. This is simply the best and most comprehensive real estate and rental website in Slovenia with the widest selection of apartments and homes for every taste and budget and, as an added bonus, it has a partially translated English version.
The coolest thing about it is that Nepremicnine.net doesn’t require you to sign up to start using it. After arriving at the home page, you’ll find the main menu from where you’ll be executing your search. The search process is fairly intuitive and uses the standard navigation you’ve seen on other real estate marketplaces, i.e. you enter your desired search criteria, then proceed with your search.
You can view your listing results or further refine them based on your parameters and preferences. Some of the most practical features are that you can sort by price, save your search, apply other filters such as number of rooms, floor, size, budget, or desired neighborhood. You may also refine your search by the date from when you want to rent.
If you’d like to remove the “Region” filter and search across all regions simultaneously, you can do so by clicking on the dash button (-) on the upper left side of the screen.
Every listing includes a monthly rental price, some photos of the apartment, a short, and a long description. Note that only the short description will be auto-translated if you set the language to English, the longer one will remain in Slovene. Therefore, it’s probably best to use Google Translate if you’re interested in a particular listing. Also, there will be a way to contact the landlord straight from the listing. That’s pretty much all there is to it!
Here are a few local tips:
If the description includes the words “soba”, “študentsko stanovanje”, or “stanovanje za študente”, that’s a red flag! Unless, of course, you’re fine with sharing the bathroom and the rest of the apartment with other people who live there. If you’re not a student with a limited budget and you prefer to be living in Slovenia comfortably, you’ll probably want the whole place to yourself. Therefore, be on the lookout for “1-sobno stanovanje”, “2-sobno stanovanje”, or “3-sobno stanovanje”. The numbers correspond the number of rooms the apartment has.
In case you’re using Google Translate, “soba” will be translated as “room”, which could trip you up if you’re searching for a 1 room apartment, for instance. In this case, “soba” refers to “shared living arrangement”. What you’re looking for is “X-sobno stanovanje” which lets you have the whole place to yourself. Typically, the latter type also tends to cost more than the former, so if an apartment you’ve found seems too good to be true in relation to its price, that’s a hint that it probably is.
3. Find an apartment in Slovenia by joining Facebook groups
Facebook groups have always been the secret weapon for apartment seekers worldwide, and moving to Slovenia, it’s no different. There are several groups you might want to check out. Although we do not endorse any particular sites or groups, here are a few popular groups that have large numbers of followers:
- Stanovanjce, stanovanjce, kje si? (128k members)
- Stanovanja najem, oddaja, nakup, prodaja (66k members)
- Nepremičnine od ust do ust (72k members)
You will find most of them are open groups, so anyone is welcome to join. You can also discover more relevant groups by yourself by searching for the following:
- Stanovanja (Apartments)
- Najem (For rent)
- Apartmaji (Apartments)
Then, simply say you’re looking for an apartment in Slovenia, list your budget and specifications, and people will start messaging you with offers. Alternatively, you may browse through the ads others have posted.
4. Find an apartment in Slovenia using Google search
The trick to finding an apartment in Slovenia is to search in Slovenian, not English. If you’d like to broaden your search and find other real estate listings websites in Slovenia, a good starting point would be to Google search phrases like:
- “Nepremičnine Slovenija” (Real estate Slovenia)
- “Najem stanovanja” (Rent a flat)
- “Najem apartmaja” (Apartment rentals)
- “Oddam stanovanje” (Rent an apartment)
- “Sites like Nepremicnine.net”
Since the search results will be in Slovene, don’t forget to use Google Translate to make things easier on you.
5. Using an agent or a broker to find an apartment in Slovenia
If you don’t speak Slovenian, you may want to consider using an agent or a broker to help you find a place to stay. Typically, landlords work with real estate agents to help them find a tenant. Examples include visiting their place, taking professional photos, and posting them around the internet in exchange for a commission.
You can, however, also get in touch with them as an apartment seeker and they will gladly assist you in finding some apartments based on your criteria, set up appointments for you and accompany you on property tours. This can save you a tremendous amount of time and uncertainty. The only downside is that, just like any other service, it will cost you some extra money. As a general rule of thumb, an agent’s fee tends to be the equivalent of one month of rent. In essence, this becomes a question of whether you’d like to spend some extra time on it or pay someone to expedite the process.
Many agencies have online reviews, to help you choose one that suits your needs. Here are a few suggestions of real estate agencies you can check out:
- Stan.si
- Mestonepremicnin.si
- 24nep.si
You may try to find other agencies by using search terms like:
- “Nepremičninska agencija” (Real estate agency)
- “Nepremičninsko posredovanje” (Real estate brokerage)
- “Posrednik za nepremičnine” (Real estate agent)
Since service providers can come and go, this will get you a fresh list of real estate brokers whose services are available, up to date, and well rated.
6. Bonus step to find an apartment in Slovenia: learn the key Slovenian words
Thanks to Google translate, you don’t really need to know Slovene to find your way around the search results. If you’re going to be living in Slovenia for the long term, though, it doesn’t hurt to learn the most commonly used Slovenian words.
For the purpose of finding an apartment in Slovenia, we’ve created a quick cheat sheet for you that lists the most relevant words:
- Nepremičnine = Real estate
- Najem/Najeti = To rent
- Najemnina = Rent (cost)
- Oddaja = Rental
- Stanovanje/Apartma = Apartment
- Hiša = House
- Soba = Room
- Ločen vhod = Separate entry
- Dom = Home
- Registracija = Registration
- Prijava = Login
- Plačilo = Payment
- Cena = Price
- Prodaja = Sale
You may also want to find out what are the cheapest and most expensive cities to live in Slovenia or see what jobs are in demand in Slovenia for English-speaking expats.
