While the number of deals decreased for all types of real estate, the contraction was the biggest for apartments, especially in Ljubljana and its surroundings.

GURS argues that the decrease, coming despite rising demand, is the result of a lack of new construction and of the strong price growth in the last three years.

Demand continued to be fuelled by favourable socio-economic circumstances - especially low interest rates, access to loans, economic growth, new jobs and rising wages - and is gradually also encouraging a new housing investment and construction cycle around the country.

The new cycle first began in Ljubljana and on the coast, where demand is also strongest, but it failed to keep up with demand last year. According to GURS, a noteworthy amount of new apartments can only be expected on the market from the second half of this year onwards.

While turnover decreased, prices continued rising. The prices of used apartments were up by 10% on average at the level of the entire country compared to 2017 and by 22% compared to 2015 when the market bottomed out.

Prices rose the most in the first half of 2018 and stagnated in the second half of the year before rising again slightly at the end.

The prices of houses, which have been rising more slowly than those of apartments after 2015, were up by 8% in 2018 but saw a downward trend in the second half of the year.

Despite strong growth in the past three years, apartment prices remain below the record figures of 2008. Ljubljana is an exception here, having experienced by far the highest growth.

The business property market saw turnover decrease by around 10%, while a slight contraction was also recorded for the building plots market despite strong demand - GURS highlighted a notable increase in prices as a reason.

Farmland experienced a marked drop in the number of deals after a record year in 2017 and prices decreased slightly. The number of deals in forest land was also down, but prices increased a little.