Although it can be heard more and more often that the real estate market is slightly “cooling” and that a drop in the price of a square meter is expected, due to the corona, due to the general decline in the economy and consumption, the truth is different. Experts say that real estate prices are very stable, that demand is higher than supply and that a cheaper square should not be expected soon. All this is confirmed by statistics.
In the last year, the price per square meter has increased by an average of 20 percent. Growth was undoubtedly sponsored by demand. In the third quarter of this year alone, 43,535 contracts were submitted to the Republic Geodetic Authority, which is 652 more than in the same period last year. In Novi Sad, the turnover increased by 25 percent, and in Belgrade by 15 percent. According to RGZ data, the average price per square meter of old construction was 997 euros, while new construction cost 1,337 euros during the first six months of this year. In the first half of last year, about 950 euros should have been set aside for a square meter of old apartments, and 1,320 euros per square meter for new ones.
“The price of a square meter has increased on average everywhere in Serbia, and in the last year it has increased by at least 20 percent. Search of the category Sales of apartments on our site only in October recorded a significant growth trend, more than 70 percent. It is logical that prices do not fall as long as the demand is higher than the supply, and the supply is reduced, especially second-hand apartments,” said the product manager of the Nekretnine site, Anita Pesic.
The reason for the lower offer, she claims, is a significant number of apartments in old buildings that have not yet completed the process of registration in the cadastre.
“Of course, that makes it difficult for the owners of those apartments, as well as real estate agencies, because they cannot increase the offer of used apartments for traffic. Interested buyers of apartments, due to the small supply of old buildings, are redirected in such a situation more to the purchase of new apartments, so new construction has a constant demand and apartments are sold during the construction process,” Pesic explains for Blic.
All that, as she adds, results in still stable prices per square meter, so a drop in prices is still not expected.
The Belgrade real estate agency, Zidart, agrees that prices will not fall in the capital soon, also due to too few apartments on the market.
“There are still many more buyers than sellers on the Belgrade market, so prices will probably continue to rise. In order for them to start falling, they would have to either stop this much immigration or build many more apartments, primarily some middle class. On that occasion, Belgrade lacks serious investments,” says the owner of that agency, Dusan Mirkulovski.
As he adds, we are witnessing the construction of new settlements, where prices are more expensive for the middle class of society. Our diaspora buys a lot of apartments here because often where they live and work they do not have the conditions to buy an apartment for some 300 or 400 thousand, so they invest that money in real estate here in Serbia, and for that money you can buy a very good apartment here,” says Mirkulovski.
On the other hand, Milos Mitic, operative director in the City Expert real estate service, explains that there was essentially a slight “cooling” of the market, ie that the corona stopped the growth of prices to a certain level, namely those properties that have a price that is far above the market, so sales of these properties have fallen markedly.
“Total turnover in the third quarter did fall by some 15 percent, but I think that serious sellers and buyers are still very active in the process. Banks, on the other hand, give strong support to keep demand going, given that they have aggressive campaigns for attractive housing loans. All agencies that had a good business foundation and that managed to adapt quickly to the market, do not have a drop in turnover,” Mitic estimates.
According to our interlocutor, the pandemic has significantly reduced the turnover of the “apartment for a day” business, so these owners decide to reduce the prices of daily rent or opt for long-term rent.
“I expect a slight drop in prices in the second quarter of 2021, of course a lot will depend on the direction of the pandemic development and the ability of each individual economy to recover quickly,” Mitic believes.
Observed by municipalities, the highest prices of newly built apartments were recorded in Belgrade municipalities, where the average price in urban areas was around 200,000 euros.
In addition to Belgrade municipalities, Cajetina (Zlatibor), Novi Sad, Vrnjacka Banja, Uzice, Kragujevac and three Nis municipalities (Red Cross, Mediana and Palilula) stood out at high prices, Spoutnik News reports.
