Invest in commercial real estate in Serbia, experts advise

The size of the real estate market in Serbia is estimated at approximately 7.5 billion euros. Compared to neighboring real estate markets, taking into account the number of population and GDP, Serbia is slowly but surely rising to the top of the regional list as quite acceptable and sustainable in terms of business risks, level of return on investment and quality of services provided. This was confirmed at REBEC 2023, one of the leading real estate events in Southeast Europe.

REBEC brought together leading experts and representatives of renowned design, consulting and law firms, as well as representatives of investors, academia, government administrations and banks, who are crucial in shaping global trends in real estate development.

One of the significant projects under development is the Brankov business center, which will be established on the site of the former Beobanka in the Zeleni Venac district. After reconstruction, "Brankov" will offer companies modern office space of 240 square meters. Ljubica Ralević, CFO of SF1 Group, the investor of this project, reports that they are cooperating with MPC Properties as a consultant. - Already 35 percent of the space has been occupied just five months after they started advertising the project - she says and notes that this business center will be ready in about a year. She emphasizes that the whole of Belgrade will be visible from it, and the building itself will house various retail stores and office space.

Bojan Jevremović, leasing director at MPC Properties, says that their company, against the background of almost full occupancy of its office space, has recently started providing consulting services. - We decided to share our experience and knowledge as a company with 99 percent of office space occupied. This is new for us," he says. He emphasizes that they are interested in building such a facility in the heart of the city. Speaking about the market in Serbia, Jevremović notes that international companies give the biggest boost to real estate development. - We have banks, international companies that rent huge spaces, but the main consumption is IT and gaming companies," he said at the panel.

Bojan Jevtić, manager of Coreside, notes that there are more and more local players joining the real estate market. - Apart from Belgrade, Novi Sad, as well as Kragujevac and Nišu are also seeing great development, with educational centers in these cities giving them a boost. However, the South of Serbia is still in the crosshairs, there is still a lot of work to be done. Still, 90 percent of the market is in Belgrade - says Srđan Vujičić, director at Conza Properties. He notes that there are several local companies in the market, which are actually outsourcing to some foreign companies. The panelists agree that Russian companies have started their activity tentatively, with few space requirements, some are just passing through our market, others may stay as they are registered here, and there are plans to open a chain of Russian cafes in Belgrade. (Telegraph Business/PR).