In Serbia, there are about 30.000 people who have registered to pay the luxury tax. Luxury neighborhoods are being built in full swing, where a square meter costs around 10.000, and a parking space alone costs around 50.000 euros. Who has so much money and where did he get it from?
A man from Belgrade, who is a director, engineer, economist or manager. He earns about one million euros per month.
This would be a simple prototype of an extremely rich man in Serbia, at least according to the data reported to "belo" in Tax Administration.
According to the latest available information, this institution received about 30.000 applications for the calculation of the annual luxury tax, which must be paid by citizens who earn more than 4,2 million dinars per year.
Thus, it turned out that the citizen with the highest income reported that he earns 14 million euros annually, while average salary in Serbia about 98.000 dinars, and in Belgrade about 1.000 euros. The difference in the annual income of the richest and the average Serb is considerable.
During that time, two projects appeared on the real estate market in Belgrade in a short period of time - Delta District, near the Hyatt, and Danube Riverside, on the site of the former Hotel Yugoslavia. According to information from the Cordon consulting company, Danube Riverside will offer 525 apartments, and the price per square meter starts from 9.000 euros, and the price of a garage space is expected to be 50.000 euros.
For the Delta District, which is being built between the Hyatt Hotel and Sava Center, the price per square meter will be 7.000 euros, and the parking space will be sold between 42.000 and 52.000 euros. Additional amenities such as a gym, spa center, private cinema, game room, etc. are also planned. The number of apartments is not yet known, and we are talking about the so-called business apartments.
Who has that much money?
The fact that entire complexes are being built in Serbia that are specially designed for the rich looking for luxury - this shows that there is a demand for such real estate in the country.
"No one is going to build Potemkin villages that will just stand empty," economist Saša Đogović told Vreme. "Everyone who is engaged in construction in Serbia does business in such a way that they look to get the maximum profit, and since there are no institutions in our country, it is easy to disavow the whole process and only get permits afterwards, which we clearly see has been happening in recent decades, since the fall of the canopy, the construction processes in the country come to light."
Thus, when asked who actually has enough money to buy a parking space for 50.000 euros and an apartment for half a million euros, Đogović says that it can certainly be a small number of well-paid athletes and entertainers, as well as one, again a small number, of people who work in the IT sector, but have managerial or director positions in well-positioned companies.
"Nevertheless, there is also a significant number of people who have become rich by being close to the government, because we have seen that systemic corruption has taken off at all levels, not only at the republican level and in Belgrade, but also at the local level and in smaller communities," adds Đogović.
He gives the example of the arrest of the former mayor of Niš Dragan Sotirovski, who is suspected of obtaining a large sum of money through corruption, mostly in the field of construction, as well as the Stajić brothers, who in Belgrade allegedly issued permits through fraud so that buildings could be erected without the necessary paperwork.
According to the latest data of the organization Transparency, Serbia is among the top five countries in Europe in terms of the corruption index, and Đogović thinks that it is precisely these richest people who have the money to buy luxurious real estate.
"That circle has many intertwined hands, we will see who will leave that circle, at least temporarily, because of these latest arrests," he adds.
What do the rich in Serbia do?
The most frequently reported occupations to the Tax Administration are manager, director, engineer, economist and lawyer. Of the total number of taxpayers who pay the luxury tax, 90 percent are men.
The reported incomes for the first 100 tax return filers with the highest reported incomes are in the range from about 100 million dinars to about 1,7 billion dinars. Most of them are from Belgrade, 69 percent, and three percent of them are foreign citizens.
Here, however, you won't find many athletes who live in duty-free zones abroad, as well as representatives of the entertainment industry, who often win the market - handily.
Sold out and medium luxury apartments
In the Cordon company, they told Forbes, apartments in Maglajska 22 in the municipality of Savski venac were also sold out in the highest price category for 7.000 euros per square meter. In the category from 4.000 to 5.000 euros, buyers took all the apartments in the Novi Dorćol projects, where 804 apartments were sold at prices from 3.500 to 5.000 euros. There is also the Dolce Vita building in Tošina Bunar, where 41 apartments got new owners, at a price of 3.500 to 4.620 euros per square meter.
In the category of 3.500 to 4.000 euros, buyers took all seven villas in the Elysian Lux Gardens project in Dedinje, as well as 39 apartments in the East Point building in Vračar.
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