The real estate market in Serbia has been constantly growing over the last few years. The most expensive properties are in Belgrade. The price of a square meter in some buildings in Belgrade on the water reached as much as 10.184 euros, while in the city center a square meter was sold for 3.273 euros, according to the report of the Republic Geodetic Institute. The cheapest square meter was in Mirijevo and cost 1.789 euros.
Since prices have risen significantly in the last few years, buying an apartment for citizens with average incomes has become almost impossible. With the average salary, as it is currently in Belgrade, it is necessary to work for as many as 19.6 years, according to the results of research by Senzal capital.
According to the research of the Republic Institute of Statistics, the average salary (gross) for January 2023 was 114.228 dinars, while the average salary without taxes and contributions in Belgrade (net) was 82.769 dinars. Thus, Vračar is the municipality with the highest average salary per employee - on average 189.122 dinars, and Sopot with the lowest - on average 94.547 dinars.
What is it that you can afford?
Because of all this, the non-governmental organization Ministry of Space created an application that shows a cross-section of the state of the real estate market, that is, which apartments citizens can afford based on their income.
The application works by entering certain parameters that show the affordability of apartments in the current real estate market.
"We have created a digital platform that provides a comparative view of available advertised apartments and affordable apartments. In order to find the number of affordable apartments, you need to enter the income of the household and the number of its members. The algorithm will throw out the number of affordable apartments, according to the upper limit of the burden of housing costs, which is 30 percent according to EU standards. Also, they will release apartments that correspond to the minimum or larger square footage that is necessary for each person," it was written in the description with which they presented their new project.
Only for the rich
As Marko Aksentijević from the Ministry of Space told N1, according to the latest analytical documents published by the Ministry of Construction, only ten percent of the richest can participate in the real estate market.
He also said that the average salary is far from what is the median, which is received by 50 percent of employees in Serbia.
"So, it takes more than 19 years of paying the entire salary to pay off an average apartment of 55 square meters," says Aksentijević.
Analyzes by the Ministry of Space show that, for example, a single mother with one child and an income of 620 euros can choose only about one percent of available apartments on the market.
"Unfortunately, as expected, the results are devastating." "Affordable apartments for people with minimal incomes are between one and two percent of the total offer, and the Housing Act and its amendments continue to deal with building management, as if the issue of unaffordability does not exist," the Ministry of Spatial Affairs states.
You can try the digital platform designed by the NGO Ministry of Space on the page cmmm-maps.eu/belgrade. The platform is available for use, and all you have to do is enter your parameters and look at the availability of affordable apartments in Belgrade.
AE/N1
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