The Association of Serbian Banks said that there was no decline in activity when it comes to housing loans.
The President of the Management Board of the Real Estate Cluster, Nenad Djordjevic, said that in the last week of May, the real estate turnover returned to the level from February or the first week of March.
– Unlike countries where measures to combat the coronavirus have led to a greater decline in real estate turnover and where they will permanently leave consequences, this is not the case here. Because, our market is not dependent on credit buyers, but it is an investment, since 70% of buyers on our market buy in cash – states Djordjevic, who is also the deputy president of the Group of Real Estate Brokers in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
He explains that real estate prices maintain the relationship between supply and demand and expects that demand in Serbia will remain high and that real estate prices will not fall.
– During this crisis, there was a redistribution of prices on the market, so the prices of houses in suburban settlements and peripheral municipalities of Belgrade, such as Grocka, Barajevo, Lazarevac, Sopot… The same is true in the vicinity of Novi Sad. People have seen that for the price of, for example, a two-room apartment in Mirijevo, they can buy a house with a plot and a garden in the mentioned municipalities – stated Djordjevic.
The residential real estate market recovered, after falling by almost 70 percent during the state of emergency, and prices remained almost unchanged.
However, the demand, as well as the price, of houses in suburban municipalities around Belgrade and other larger cities has increased, say real estate agents.
The Association of Serbian Banks said that there was no decline in activity when it comes to housing loans, that about 120,000 housing loans are currently registered and that their average value is around 30,000 euros.
When it comes to apartments, their price is stagnant and is at the same level as before the crisis, says Djordjevic, adding that new apartments are being sold and that “all major projects have been sold out.”
Apartments are still most in demand in New Belgrade and Vracar, in the city center, but also in peripheral settlements such as Mirijevo and Zarkovo, where the price of apartments is cheaper, in new construction between 1,200 and 1,400 euros per square meter, while the price of old apartments is slightly lower.
He adds that crisis periods can even speed up the purchase of real estate, because investors want to hide their money there, as well as that was the case with us during the 1990s.
Djordjevic states that the conditions for housing loans are better in our country than in the countries of the region, since interest rates are lower and amount to an average of about 2.7 percent in Serbia, while in Croatia they are about 3.2 or 3.3 percent in BiH and Montenegro. It burns much more.
– I do not believe that real estate prices will fall in our country, they have not fallen in the USA either, where the market is completely different – says Djordjevic, Srbija Danas reports.
