Balkans Property Forum 2024 – Region has perspective, hotel industry never stronger, offices changing and getting closer to dwellings

The Southeast Europe region has a perspective for further growth when it comes to the real estate market, and which direction it will go in depends on the obstacles that the investors will encounter, such as bureaucratic procedures or corruption. This was said at the eighth international conference Balkans Property Forum 2024, by Mario Kijanovic, SOG in cooperation with Kinstellar.

He added that it was precisely market development that acted as a motive for investors to get involved, but also that, concretely in Serbia, a different level of development in different parts of the country was noticeable, especially regarding the infrastructure.

He especially emphasized the opportunity for investments in data centers, for which, as he says, there are more and more requests and interest regarding the location where these projects might be realized.

Petar Kolognat, CTP, pointed out that the development of infrastructure had a big impact on the interest of clients and noted that the company developed projects in other cities as well, and not just in Belgrade and Novi Sad.

– We are also developing industrial parks in Kragujevac, Jagodina and Nis. In Sombor, we have bought over 20 ha, all to the end of making other parts of the country attractive as well, and foreign investors, especially those from the automotive industry, are interested in smaller cities. The demand for industrial real estate is still high if we’re talking about logistics and manufacture. What makes our country attractive are the excellent geostrategic position and access to the EU market, as well as the availability of workforce – Kolognat said and added that Croatia was also an attractive market for investments in real estate.

Maja Sabhaz Marojevic, EY, said that investors sought stability and predictability and that both geopolitical and economic stability were equally important to them, whereas Aleksandra Cupic, Erste Bank, pointed out that the Serbian market was highly competitive, with which Gabriela Reyes Vidrio, NLB Komercijalna Banka, and Vasilije Jaukovic, EBRD, agreed. Jaukovic pointed out that Serbia was a very good market for the future period for investments in commercial real estate.
When asked which segment of the real estate market was an opportunity in the Serbian market, the participants in the survey during the panel highlighted hotels (36%), logistics facilities (25%) and apartment building (17%), followed by office spaces (12%) and retail spaces (10%).
Work from home not to survive

Although the labor market has changed since the covid pandemic, work from home will not survive, is the conclusion of the panel dedicated to office space. On the other hand, hybrid work will keep developing, which will influence the form of the future offices.

Those in the know say that the future is in office spaces which are close to dwellings, which will thereby stimulate environmental protection, and the problem of an insufficient number of parking spaces will also be solved. Office space will be designed in line with the needs of the employees, whereas sustainability will bring mutual benefits – higher prices for those who rent out space, and more advantage for those who rent.

Masa Kramar, Andersen, cited the example of Ljubljana and emphasized that that market adapted to new trends and needs. She said that office spaces increasingly depended on the type of work people did and that investors paid a lot of attention to the building being able to change over time, relative to the needs.

– In under five years, we will have 19,000 square meters of new office space, which will affect the prices, and it will be interesting to see how the current tenants will react, how tenants will be kept and how new ones will be reached. Also, tenants increasingly want shorter-term rent contracts, so in that sense flexible spaces are increasingly interesting – said Kramar.

Danijela Nedeljkovic Stojakov, BDO Srbija, believes that remote work has opened a new structure of open-space office spaces, which are designed differently, thanks to the needs of the tenants and in accordance with their need for business development.

She also said that it was not easy to redesign buildings raised in the late 1980s and that it was much easier to design and build new facilities.

– In Belgrade, there is a constant growth of the buildings meant for office space, which are more energy efficient at that. The market is stable and no changes are expected. We are heading in the right direction – she added.

Hotel industry stronger than ever

After the pandemic, hotels made a big comeback to the market, says George Bobvos, DDG group – people like to travel, and the habits have not changed at all.

He pointed out that the demands were very big, but that he saw a weakness in the lack of branded apartments and villas, hotels with five stars and more, resorts which enable an extended season. Another challenge is to have hotels with four stars and more be occupied at a higher rate. However, as he says, the market is moving in that direction.

– The hotel business and the whole industry are changing fast. The construction of new hotels enables you to respond to the demands. Sometimes it’s much better to make a new facility than adapt, for example, historical buildings – believes Bobvos.

David Jenkins, Radisson Hotel Group, added that it was very challenging to open top-class hotels in top-class locations, but that it could function.

He confirmed that hotels were recovering and that the challenges of profitability remained, due to which new ways of doing business had to be found. He also said that that brand’s hotel would open in Nis in 2025.

– Regarding Serbia, the market is good, and EXPO is a big opportunity and we expect growth there. However, sustainable development and where to go further, when the exhibition is done, need to be considered – said Jenkins.

This year, better results are recorded than last year, as also pointed out by Nikola Velendric, Nobel Hotel Group:

– Serbia is stronger than ever when it comes to hotels. There’s enough work, the occupancy rate is high, and many guests go to Novi Sad when they can’t find a place in Belgrade hotels.

The conference was organized by Property Forum, in close cooperation with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) from Great Britain, and the event gathered numerous investors, developers and experts from the field of real estate and sustainable construction from the whole Southeast Europe region. Other topics that were discussed include ESG standards and circular economy. The eKapija business portal was a media sponsor.

Aleksandra Kekic

RICS

CTP invest d.o.o. Beograd

Ernst & Young d.o.o. Beograd

Erste Bank a.d. Novi Sad

NLB Komercijalna banka AD Beograd

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj Beograd

Andersen Savetovanje doo Beograd

BDO d.o.o. Beograd

DDG GROUP d.o.o.

Property Forum

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

RICS

Balkans Property Forum 2024

SOG in cooperation with Kinstellar

CTP

EY

Erste bank

NLB Komercijalna banka

EBRD

Andersen

BDO Srbija

DDG Group

Radisson Hotel Group

Nobel Hotel Group

Mario Kijanović

Petar Kolognat

Maja Šahbaz Marojević

Aleksandra Čupić

Gabriela Reyes Vidrio

Vasilije Jauković

Maša Kramar

Danijela Nedeljković Stojakov

George Bobvos

David Jenkins

Nikola Velenderić

real estate market of Southeast Europe

investments in real estate

development of industrial parks

industrial parks

commercial real estate

work from home

remote work

hybrid work

office spaces

flexible office space

hotel industry

construction of hotels