Over the past year, many residential markets in CEE that have historically depended on credit buyers, have experienced a significant slowdown. This is not the case with Serbia’s residential market which has been dominated by cash buyers. At the same time, the local commercial real estate market also remains attractive to foreign investors, especially for the development of logistics and industrial facilities. These are just some of the conclusions of last week‘s Balkans Property Forum 2023, organised in Belgrade by Property Forum.

BIG CEE and RC Europe have reached an agreement on the sale and purchase of two retail parks in Serbia, NEST Obrenovac and Nest Kraljevo. The transaction was facilitated by CBRE, the buyer announced.

Total transaction volume in Q3 2023 in Belgrade was €456 million, which represents a decrease of around 21% year-on-year, according to real estate agency Cordon’s report for Q3 2023.

Brno-based Domoplan from the Fipox Group continues its expansion into Southern Europe. At the beginning of the year, it announced the construction of apartments worth hundreds of millions of crowns in Zagreb, Croatia, and now it is also entering the Serbian market. At the beginning of next year it will start construction in Belgrade, where it is planning a luxury residential project worth €20 million, reports e15.cz.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is boosting the development of green commercial real estate in the Western Balkans, with a debt package of up to €100 million to be used by BIG CEE for the company’s regional expansion.

Investors' interest in the construction of retail parks in Serbia has not been declining for several years now. Investors are mostly focused on building new facilities in secondary and tertiary locations. As much as 14% of the total offer of retail parks in Serbia is located in the region of central Serbia. The Šumadija region is attracting more and more attention, so the company Peštan announced the opening of a new retail park in 2025 - Arandjelovac Retail Park. 

Industrial developer CTP has leased around 20,000 sqm at CTPark Belgrade City to Mercata VT, the biggest tobacco and FMCG distributor in Serbia. The company will use the warehouse space as its new distribution centre for the next decade. 

CTP has leased approximately 68,000 sqm of industrial and warehouse space to Mercator, a major Serbian supermarket chain, at CTPark Belgrade City, which will be the largest logistics hub in Serbia when complete.

Belgrade’s residential market is not cooling down with demand remaining strong and price growth continuing, according to real estate agency Cordon’s report for Q2 2023.

Unlike in the Czech Republic, developers in Poland can rely on the deadlines given by law which makes it a lot easier to do business. Marcela Fialková, Strategy Director of Czech-based developer UDI Group talked to Property Forum about the challenges and opportunities different markets in CEE offer.