Rebec 2023: It’s Best to Invest Money in Office Space – Development of IT Companies Has Positive Impact on Construction Sector as Well

If you have money, it’s best to invest it in real estate and office space, because that is a growing market, it was said during the Office Development in SEE panel within the Rebec 2023 conference.

According to Ljubica Ralevic, who talked on behalf of SF1 Group about that company’s entrance to the real estate market from another field, a special challenge for them is the investment that they are currently developing, which is the Brankov Business Center.

– What’s different about this project is that we are the investors, but within the project, we cooperate with other companies. MPC runs this project, which has 10,500 m2, and said experience has turned out to be a good thing in our case and I would recommend this scenario to everybody, because we had had only 3 projects and then we started cooperating with these companies which have bigger portfolios and for now, we are satisfied with how the cooperation is going. It is an interesting location, in the city center, but another new thing is that is the reconstruction of a facility, it is not being built “from scratch”. The market of real estate of this type is only just developing and gaining significance – said Ljubica Ralevic.

As she added, a large green balcony is planned for the sixth floor, and the view from the building will reach the Beogradjanka building, Usce, Kneza Mihaila Street, all the way to Kalemegdan.

– When it comes to parking space, there’s not a lot of space there because it is the very center of the city and, like in all big cities in Europe, parking in the city center is a challenge, but there are 3 public garages nearby, so that increases the possibilities in that segment – she added.

According to Bojan Jevtic from the company Coreside Savills Srbija, our market is still young.

– If you want to be even more successful, it is important to realize that you need to cooperate with companies which have more experience than you in said industry. Comparing BIGZ with the Brankov Business Center, we see that BIGZ is nearly 90% finished and the completion is planned for August. But these are two different buildings – Jevtic adds and notes that increasingly more investors are coming to our country, and what’s also good for the results realized by the construction sector is the fact that the rent prices “have gone up”.

As he points out, the most frequent tenants are companies from the IT sector or tech companies.

That the IT community is one of the main factors in stimulating the construction industry is also the position of Bojan Jevremovic of MPC Properties.

– Most of our associates come from the tech industry. There are also other multinational companies, there are banks, there’s the tobacco industry. These days, we are noticing an increase in the number of pharmaceutical companies and companies from the gaming industry. The IT sector is still dominant when it comes to the users of the office space. In other countries in the region, we don’t have this kind of an IT industry growth and that is our advantage – he clarified.

What are the trends and who can we compare ourselves with?

Considering that Belgrade is a large market when it comes to real estate, when asked what the trends are and which cities of the region we can compare ourselves with, Bojan Jevtic notes that comparisons with Zagreb and Ljubljana are a thing of the past.

– These are markets which are not developing in parallel with us and we have outgrown them. Plenty of floor area is leased in Sofia, then there’s Bucharest, with which there is a certain parallel, whereas the Czech Republic or the Netherlands are far above us. When it comes to companies from Russia, there is a noticeable growth in the number of companies from the IT sector, and now there’s Yandex as well. This is certainly a good trend for the real estate market, because now it no longer depends on Ukraine either, but manages to “digest” all by itself and record a growth – Jevtic pointed out.

When it comes to the interest of the users in real estate, Bojan Jevremovic points out that different clients look for different real estate.

– For some, due to the nature of their operations and the collective, office space in the city center is more suitable, whereas some others are more oriented to buildings in New Belgrade. Companies with younger staff look for locations where their employees can use bicycles to go to work and then back home – Jevremovic adds and points out that there is plenty of room for the growth of this market.

What kinds of transactions is the local office space market recording?

Considering that the real estate market is still young, that is has existed for only around fifteen years, there are no big transactions, says Bojan Jevremovic.

– I certainly believe that the market will develop. We have investors and we believe that, in the future, the sector will keep on growing. For example, there are more and more buildings which are hotels with shopping malls. Developed infrastructure, such as the subway system, certainly contributes to it. The increasingly present energy efficiency and green construction are also important – he adds.

According to Ljubica Ralevic, energy efficiency standards will be implemented within the Brankov Business Center.

– Serbia today has much more green construction than was the case 10 years ago – she said.

When it comes to green construction, another thing that’s noticeable are the increasing demands by companies.

– There is increasingly more interest in sustainable trends and those who do not adhere to it will lose jobs. To investors, it is certainly increasingly important – added Bojan Jevtic and emphasized that Belgrade was still a dominant market for real estate.

Belgrade has 90% of the real estate market, although it is noticeable that, despite a large number of foreign companies being recorded, foreigners often use coworking office spaces and do not stand out as the main companies which rent office space.

A media partner of the conference is eKapija.

S. Maricic

SF1 properties doo Novi Sad

Balkans Real Estate d.o.o. Beograd

Coreside d.o.o. Beograd

Predstavništvo OOO Yandex.Technology Beograd

SF1 Group Srbija

MPC Properties

Coreside Savills Srbija

Yandex

Ljubica Ralević

Bojan Jevtić

Bojan Jevremović

Rebec 2023

Brankov Business Center

construction of Brankov Business Center

Beograđanka

Ušće

Kalmegdan

Kneza Mihaila Street

BIGZ

Zagreb

Ljubljana

Bucharest

Sofia

renting office space

leasing office space