The number of new apartments in 2019 reached and surpassed the one from the period before the world economic crisis for the first time in the last decade. According to the data of the Republic Bureau of Statistics, 24,803 apartments were built, which is 4,988 more than in 2008. During 2019, twice as many apartments were occupied as in 2016, when there were 11,332 of them.
The head of the Group for Construction Statistics at the Republic Bureau of Statistics, Dejana Djordjevic, says that she will publish the data for 2020 in August, but it is already known that the numbers are growing even in the year of the corona virus epidemic.
– During 2019, a total of 21,844 building permits were issued in Serbia, while last year there were 22,625 – says Djordjevic. – A total of 24,803 apartments were built in 2019, while data for last year will be available on August 2, 2021, after the completion of the annual survey on construction activity.
In the past ten years, housing construction has been in constant decline, so the number of newly built housing units has been decreasing from one to two thousand annually. The recovery occurred in 2017, when 14,080 apartments were built, which was almost 3,000 more than the year before. Statistics also show that the best years were those in which the state subsidized housing loans.
The latest published data from the SBS show that 1,516 building permits were issued in February, which is 6.8 percent more than in the same period last year. Of the total number of permits, 78 percent refer to buildings, and 22 percent to other buildings. If only buildings are observed, 66.8 percent of permits were issued for residential and 33.2 percent for non-residential buildings, while for other buildings the largest part refers to pipelines, communication and electrical lines.
The construction of 2,652 apartments was reported in February, and statistical data show that the average area of built real estate is around 72.9 square meters. Appraiser Milic Djokovic, from the Real Estate Cluster, however, points out that in reality, apart from statistics, buyers most often look for apartments of 30 to 40 square meters or those larger than 90 to 100 square meters.
– That is why, statistically, it is an apartment of about 70 square meters, but in essence, they are the least built and sought after – says Milic Djokovic. – Citizens generally have around 60,000 euros in cash, and they supplement the rest of the money from loans. And the fact that real estate is bought for cash is not a realistic picture, because when a buyer buys an apartment worth 100,000 euros, and he has taken a loan, he transfers the money to the seller, who usually buys the real estate again. That other person is counted as a cash buyer, so the money from the loan is turned, on average, four and a half times. That is why the image is created that there are many more customers who pay in cash.
Milic Djoković also notes that from time to time some of the apartments in elite locations are sold in Belgrade, where a square meter costs more than 9,000 euros, and warns that there are not many such transactions, but that they, when only statistics are observed, cause an earthquake and create a false image of exorbitant prices.
The most expensive apartment in a new building sold in the first quarter of the year cost 1.47 million euros and is located in Belgrade on the water. The Republic Geodetic Authority announced that the first nine most expensive apartments in Serbia were in Belgrade Waterfront, where the most expensive square meter of 9,677 euros was. The total volume of funds on the real estate market in the first quarter amounted to more than 1.3 billion euros, which is an increase of 41.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The turnover of apartments took the largest share in the total funds with 53 percent. In the total real estate turnover, apartments are dominant with 3,500 turnover per month.
Vice President of the Construction Chamber of Serbia, Goran Rodic, reminds that the construction activity is very important, because it entails another 50 industrial branches, Novosti reports.
