ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Serbia

With EBRD financing, Serbia will expand science and technology parks (STPs) and construct new ones in cities across the country, including Niš, Čačak, Kruševac and Belgrade (in the BIO4 Campus). A sovereign loan of €80 million and accompanying project agreements were signed in Belgrade by the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, the Minister of Finance, Siniša Mali, and the EBRD Regional Head of the Western Balkans, Matteo Colangeli, as well as directors of existing STPs.

CA Immo has successfully signed and closed the sale of the Serbian office complex Belgrade Office Park to a domestic investor. With two buildings and an underground car park, the complex comprises approx. 27,200 sqm of total lettable space. The building, which is located close to the city centre, was 97% let as of April 30, 2023, with annualized gross rental income of around €4.4 million.

CBRE has announced the new role of Zvezdana Milutinović as Head of A&T Residential for the SEE region, effective June 1, 2023. Zvezdana joined CBRE at the beginning of the operations in the SEE region, 5 years ago when the direct office in Belgrade for the SEE region was established.

The Lastavice development project in Belgrade, Serbia, has just completed its rough construction. The first building of the project, which will offer almost 500 flats and require an investment of more than CZK 2 billion (€84 million), will be completed by the Czech developer UDI Group in spring 2024, while the construction of the second of the project's two buildings will begin at that time.

Total transaction volume in the first quarter in Belgrade was €537 million, which represents a decrease of around 5 % compared to the overall amount of €563 million which was registered in the first quarter of 2022, but the overall amount spent is still extremely high, real estate agency Cordon reports.

High inflation and rising interest rates seem to have bitten in overall consumption. And although Serbia is likely to avoid recession in the short run, its real GDP growth is estimated to be a moderate 2%-4% this year and next with a downside risk being the looming recession in the EU. The rental housing market has been supported by the Russian and Ukrainian citizens settling down in Serbia, keeping rent rates high. Housing construction is still strong and although the volumes in building construction are already consolidating, big infrastructure projects could sustain civil engineering on all-high levels in the mid-term, according to Dejan Krajinović (Beobuild Core d.o.o.) at EECFA which conducts research on the construction markets of 8 Eastern-European countries, including Serbia.

Radisson Hotel Group announced the debut of its upscale Radisson Red brand in Serbia with the signing of Radisson Red Belgrade, set to open later this year. Located just minutes from the capital’s historic centre, Radisson Red is the first Radisson Red branded hotel to be operated by PPHE Hotel Group’s Croatian subsidiary Arena Hospitality Group. This collaboration is made possible under the extended strategic partnership between Radisson Hotel Group and PPHE Hotel Group, through which both companies intend to leverage each other’s brands and strengths.

The total transaction volume for last year in Belgrade's residential market was €2.67 billion, which represents an increase of around 28% compared to the overall amount of €2.06 billion which was registered in the year 2021. This also represents the largest year-on-year increase in recent years, which was caused by the rise in transactions in Q2 when the Ukrainian war broke out, and the rise in transactions in Q4 when it became evident that rents in Belgrade doubled in certain parts of the city as a result of the influx of population from Ukraine and Russia, real estate agency Cordon reports.

Real estate consultancy Cordon has published its monthly reports based on 500 ads for apartments that were available for lease for Belgrade in February of 2023.

Belgrade’s residential market recorded a quarterly transaction volume of €826.4 million in Q4 2022, the highest on record, local real estate consultancy Cordon reports.