According to Aleksandra Damnjanovic, the state secretary in the Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure, Serbia has implemented comprehensive reforms of regulations with the aim of attracting foreign investments. Among the key novelties are the new Law on Planning and Development, the Law on Building Land Conversion, and the Legalization Law.
– There are over 1,600,000 illegal buildings in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The new law aims to have them legalized, which will also enable their energy rehabilitation – said Damnjanovic.
She pointed out that one of the most important results of the reforms was the system for issuing electronic building permits, which reduces the permitting process to less than 30 working days. Damnjanovic stressed that the reforms aimed to revive the construction industry of Serbia and encourage new hires. The minister illustrated previous results with the information that 1,051 building permits were issued in December 2015, 56.4% more than in the same month in 2014.
– Our plan for 2016 is to improve the software for issuing electronic building permits as well as to continue to invest in traffic infrastructure. This year will see the completion of Ljig-Preljina highway stretch on Corridor XI, which will be followed by the restructuring of the public company Putevi Srbije. We are also going to invest in water traffic, that is, the construction of ports and docks, as well as in the regulation of riverbeds – Damnjanovic underlined.
Belgrade has by far the greatest role in the development of the construction industry. As GTC Srbija CEO Pedja Petronijevic explained, the only foreign investments outside the capital are those in factories and retail parks. Petronijevic believes that it is necessary to diversify investments into other cities in Serbia as well, which he says show high demand for modern office space.
However, he stressed that Belgrade was still a fertile soil for real estate investments.
– Belgrade competes with Budapest and Bucharest in the region. When it comes to A class office space, Belgrade has about 400,000 square meters, about a tenth of the size of such office space in Budapest – Petronijevic explained.
Construction of high-quality office space in New Belgrade was continued in 2016 as well. Despite a large number of projects, real estate market development is still decelerated by certain factors, the most significant of which is legislation.