Rent prices in Serbia have been driven to astronomical heights due to the large influx of Russian and Ukrainian citizens pressuring many locals to either pay far more on rent or vacate the apartments they had been renting.
The practice that some longtime renters have dubbed “war profiteering” has even resulted in landlords asking for double the rent in some cases.
Milan Ivanović is among the longtime renters who have been forced to move out so that his landlord could rent to Russian nationals offering to pay more. Milan had been paying €280 per month for an apartment in downtown Belgrade, but the landlord suddenly decided to ask for €400.
“He told me it was a ‘friendly’ price since I had been renting from him for years, and that he could get a lot more money from Russians,” Ivanović told EURACTIV Serbia.
“I decided to leave anyway because I was offended on a human level. The day before I was due to move out, the landlord asked me to leave immediately so that a Russian family could move in. I saw the new lodgers with my own eyes, they stopped by to ask about furniture, moving in and other details,” he added.
“I had to rent another apartment which I am now paying €400 for, even though it’s half the size of the previous one. The prices are ridiculous”, said IIvanović.
Filip Vrbaški from the real estate agency Gigant told EURACTIV that the rent prices have gone up 100%, with a 64 square metre, one-bedroom apartment in New Belgrade now being rented at €700 per month compared to just €350 last year.
Most Russian and Ukrainian citizens in Serbia – younger, working people and families for the most part – signed one-year leases to formally regulate their stay in the country, said Vrbaški. His agency dealt with Ukrainians at the start of the war in Ukraine but most of his clients have recently been mostly Russians, he added.
Among the Russian and Ukrainian renters in Belgrade, 90% are located in the city centre, Nikola Savić from the real estate agency City Expert told EURACTIV. Figures are similar for the cities of Niš and Novi Sad.
“It’s important for them that they live in a safe location, that the apartment is fully equipped,” said Savić, adding that “good internet speed is of crucial importance because most of them work from home.”
Most Russians and Ukrainians are from the IT sector but there are also designers, visual or audio artists, nutritionists, and restaurateurs, he explained.
Though there has been a slight decrease in the number of Ukrainians and Russians in Serbia, apartment owners do not want to lower rents as, after being graced with two large arrivals of Ukrainian and Russian citizens last year, Vrbaški said they are now probably betting on another large wave of Ukrainian and Russian citizens that Vrbaški said people are expecting in the country.
“Between the two arrivals, there was less demand, and prices stagnated. The landlords are currently patiently waiting for the expected third wave of arrivals, and are therefore not ready to lower the prices”, Vrbaški told EURACTIV.
This would mean that until Serbia is hit by the expected third wave, local renters are left with significantly higher rents.
(Milena Antonijević | EURACTIV.rs)
Source: euractiv.com
