Money Meetup: High real estate prices

At the panel discussion on financial health, on the occasion of the European Savings Week, Nikola Đogatović – the executive director for commercial services of the Novaston platform, was among the speakers and shared data on the state of the real estate market, trends, prices, as well as whether now is the right time to purchase.

Recalling that the prices on the real estate market have been constantly increasing for the last 10 years, Đogatović presented the information that during 2022, around 140,000 properties were traded in Serbia, which is a few percent increase compared to 2021. However, a significant increase in the ‘volume of money’ (of 22 percent) to 7.5 billion euros was recorded.

“The number of sales contracts was more or less stable during last year. Almost 51,700 housing units were sold on the territory of the region including Serbia, of which 28,000 were “used apartments”, Đogatović reminded.

Asked whether real estate prices can be expected to stabilize, he said that no one has precise answers, especially considering that last year 89 percent of real estate was bought with cash, i.e. 11 percent through loans – a drop of 2 percent was recorded. Apartments were most often purchased from loans, and that is 26% of all apartment sales in 2022 (the apartments share in purchases from loan funds in 2021 was 31% – thus a decrease of 5 percent was recorded).

The goals of this year’s panel discussion “Money Meetup” was improving financial literacy and raising awareness of its importance, and was organized by the Center for Financial Education and Empowerment (CEFIN) with the support of Erste Bank.