2024. The best time to buy an apartment in Serbia!

Prices of old apartments in Belgrade are finally coming down, and in some neighborhoods have already fallen by 10 percent. Next year may bring even better news, as agents believe that prices could still fall by the same amount.

The real estate market in Serbia experienced a sharp decline - over the year, apartment sales fell by almost 35 percent in Novi Sad, 21.5 percent in Belgrade, 15.3 percent in Nišu and 12.8 percent in Kragujevac, and as always demand and prices are linked, and there have been changes here.

While new buildings are still expensive, the situation is different when it comes to older buildings. Demand and sales have dropped, and prices have fallen. As real estate agent Nikola Čobić from the City Expert agency points out, the prices of old apartments are already falling. On average, in the whole of Belgrade, the prices of old buildings have fallen by about 10 percent. "However, in the whole city, prices have not fallen that much. The greatest decline in value can be felt in the wider city center, while the narrow center and Novi Belgrade still hold higher price levels," Čobić told us.

Although prices have already fallen, Chobich expects that trend could continue. "Next year, it is very likely that prices will drop another 10 percent," concludes Agent Chobich.

10% or less?

Real estate agent, appraiser and forensic expert MilicвЂokovic says it is still too early to draw conclusions about how the downturn in demand may affect prices. Nevertheless, he agrees that prices could go down, but only slightly. "It's more of an adjustment, a 2 to 3 percent decrease. The problem is that statistics track prices for a year, and we have a market that has been highly disrupted with the arrival of the coronavirus, so you have to take that period into account when discussing prices," Ђokovic says.

Nevertheless, Ђokovic's forecasts, while not foreshadowing a sharp drop in prices, are still not so gloomy.

Why did prices drop?

The sharp decline in demand for apartments has led, depending on the experience of the agent, either to a decrease in prices or at least to stabilization. Nikola Cobic emphasizes that the first "culprit" is the high interest rates on mortgages, which rose by leaps and bounds last year, and now even the weak interest of credit buyers has become even less. "On the other hand, cash buyers, who are always more numerous, have already exhausted themselves, bought what they wanted, and now they too have slowed down," says Čobić.

And, as you might expect, the high prices had an impact. Prices in the listings are unrealistically high. Real estate prices in listings are still unrealistically high, so buyers don't get the impression that there has been a decline at all. However, listings do not reflect the reality of the market. While an apartment may be listed at one, high price, there is a real possibility that a purchase contract will be signed at another, lower price. The difference between the advertised and actual selling price of an apartment can be as much as 10 or 20 percent. (Mondo).