The coronavirus epidemic is already affecting the real estate market in Serbia at this point, so housing prices have fallen by about 20 percent, owner of Kaca Lazarevic Real Estate Agency, Kaca Lazarevic, told Danas.
“When it comes to renting apartments and business premises, we can conclude that this type of business is almost completely dead at the moment. Namely, in the conditions of epidemic and state of emergency, the tenants of apartments and business premises were asked by the owners of the leasing real estate to either significantly reduce their rent or pay only overhead until the epidemic had passed. The owners have mostly rejected such offers and most of these premises are now vacant or not leased,” Lazarevic explained.
According to her, when it comes to buying apartments – that is where the business is almost completely stopped.
“People avoid the apartments they sell for anyone to look at, and people are scared to go sightseeing, whether it’s flats or new buildings. All this has caused the price of apartments on the market in Serbia to be reduced by about twenty percent,” Lazarevic said.
She added that at the same time, banks continue to approve loans to buy apartments and that citizens apply for them.
“Buyers are convinced that the housing loans currently offered are a far better solution than waiting for the epidemic to end, because then they will be much more expensive than they are now. I share this opinion because banks will be much more difficult to decide in the coming period and will be more cautious when it comes to lending. Simply because of the potential economic crisis, people can lose their jobs, and thus banks run the risk of losing the money they borrowed,” Lazarevic said.
She added that entrepreneurs who started construction of housing and business premises were also threatened, and that it was a question of whether it would be easy to get the loans needed to finish construction in the coming period.
“One of the problems is also how they will procure construction materials coming from abroad, and the borders are currently closed,” said Kaca.
Vice President of the Serbian Chamber of Construction Goran Rodic said that it was fully expected that in such situations real estate prices would fall, and that as far as the construction industry is concerned, it will still be able to work on the housing construction even after the epidemic is over.
“The construction of apartments is still being carried out, though to a lesser extent. There is a shortage of skilled labor among construction workers, but this is a problem that exists in our country unrelated to coronavirus. But it definitely does, and it will work when this passes. There will be apartments,” he said.
Rodic stated that the material would not be a problem for the construction industry because 80 percent of the materials are from domestic production when it comes to residential construction.
“The state will also help the economy on its part, including the construction industry. Crisis situations like this make it very clear how important it is to have a strong and capable domestic construction industry and that it should therefore be assisted in every way,” said Rodic.
The Association of Serbian Banks could not say whether there has been a decrease in the number of applications for housing loans, but said that banks, even in emergency situations, approve loans for the purchase of real estate.
In the Republic Geodetic Authority, where requests for entry in the cadastre are submitted, they point out that the sales activity has not stopped and that requests are still being submitted, but that the number of requests that have been received has decreased.
The RGZ states that part of the requests are for cadastre entry through public notaries, and part from lawyers. The cases are resolved, as they say, but they are not signed and mailed to those who have submitted the requests, because all deadlines stand.
Since cadastre counters do not work, RGZ has enabled those who wish to submit a request digitally. This request will be processed, but the enrollment decision will not reach the user during the state of emergency, Danas reports.
