6.  The applicant was born in 1946 and lives in Bratislava. 7.  The applicant’s parents built a house in Bratislava-Ružinov in 1937. In the second half of the 1950s they were compelled to donate the house to the State. On 31 July 1992 it was restored to the applicant’s mother (a three-quarters share) and the applicant (a one-quarter share) under the special legislation on restitution. Since 30 September 1996 the applicant has been its sole owner. 8.  At the time of its restitution to the applicant and his mother, the house comprised nine flats subject to rent control. One flat has a surface area of 30 sq. m and the remaining eight measure 70 sq. m each. Under the relevant legislation (i) the applicant had to accept that his flats were occupied by the tenants, (ii) he could charge them no more than the maximum amount of rent fixed by the State, (iii) he could not unilaterally terminate the leases, and (iv) he could not sell the flats to anyone other than the tenants (“the rent-control scheme”). 9.  In 1996 and 2000 two of the bigger flats became vacant, as a result of which the rent‑control scheme ceased to apply to them. The rent control ceased to apply in respect of another two 70 sq. m flats in January 2008 and November 2012 respectively. Currently, five flats are under the rent control regime. 10.  Under the applicable legislation, between 1992 and 1999 the maximum permissible monthly rent chargeable for the flats was equivalent of some 3 to 8 euros (EUR). After several increases in the regulated rent, in 2007 the applicant could charge some EUR 35 for the smaller flat and EUR 65 for each of the larger ones. 11.  The parties provided differing figures as to the market rent:
The applicant relied on data from the National Association of Real Estate Agencies (“NAREA”) and claimed that in 2007 the monthly market rent for similar flats with a surface area of 70 sq. m reached EUR 553 and for flats measuring 30 sq. m some EUR 375.
The Government submitted an expert valuation according to which the monthly market rent for the applicant’s flats in 2010 amounted to EUR 330 and EUR 160.50 respectively.