The Russians are leaving Serbia, the Chinese as well, so Serbian tenants could finally breathe a little, bearing in mind that rent prices have slowly started to fall, and more and more apartments are available for rent.
The prices of square meters in Serbia have increased significantly in the last two years, today it is hardly possible to buy a property below 100,000 euros, and judging by what is offered in the ads, the fact is that apartments below this amount are mostly one-room or studio apartments in old buildings that has become increasingly difficult to find.
“Given that new construction has raised the price of old buildings, it is very difficult to find parts of Belgrade where real estate is sold at a good price, as was once the case in Borča, Ovča or Mirijevo. Now the prices of new buildings on the outskirts and in the suburbs range from 1,700 to 2,000, while old buildings can still be found at, conditionally speaking, decent prices, from 1,600-1,700 and that is on the outskirts of Belgrade, in settlements such as Borča, Ovča, Krnjača, Resnik, Železnik, Barajevo etc”, says real estate agent Kaća Lazarevic, adding that there is no part of the city where demand has fallen.
“There is a large influx of residents, which is why we are in a situation where we have a multimillion-dollar city that is looking to expand wherever possible. That is why today it is difficult to find a decent apartment at a decent price”, Lazareviceva explains.
According to her, how much the prices of apartments on the outskirts have risen is also evidenced by the fact that a 45 square meter apartment on the outskirts of Zemun was recently advertised at a price of 150,000 euros.
However, while sales prices are stagnating, rental prices are in a slight decline, and as Lazarevic says, we can expect a return to the old rental prices in a few months.
“The selling price of apartments will not fall, but this is not the case with renting, because there is no longer interest like it was until recently. Now, every day we get 5-6 apartments for which no one applies, whereas before there were ten, fifteen people interested in one apartment. This has been the situation for more than a month,” says the agent.
“When the landlords realize in two or three months that they have to pay the costs for an empty apartment, the prices will return. Not only the Russians left, but also the Chinese, who were renting entire buildings for office space, and now they are leaving those spaces. That’s why people have corrected the prices now, but very little. However, the rental prices will have to be adjusted very soon because there are no more interested parties. Apartments of 50 square meters will return to the price of 600 euros per month, they will not cost 700, 800 or 900 euros as they do now, while smaller apartments will return to 350-400 euros,” says Lazarevic.
According to her, there is general turmoil in the rental market, people move in and out of apartments, and it is stable only in Belgrade on the water, where everything has been rented out despite the high prices.
