The cost of building is reduced, but not even of residences

The cost of construction in Kosovo, after more than a year of continued growth, has dropped. However, this has not caused the prices of real estate to fall.

For a new residence in Pristina, depending on location, the buyer must pay from 900 euros to over 2,500 euros per square metre.

From the Kosovo Builders' Association, they say prices are similar in Prizren about 85 kilometers from the capital while slightly lower are in other cities, such as: I served Kosovo, Ferizaj, Gjilan and Pec.

Inflation, as elsewhere in the world, has begun to rise in 2021, as a result of market disorders that have caused the pandemic of coronary, as it has continued during 2022, especially after Russia has begun its invasion of Ukraine in February of that year.

The supply of building material has then cost more than 20 percent.

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By comparison, one square metre of a residence in Fushe Kosovo six kilometers from Pristina has reached 650 euros and more in March 2022, up from 500 in the previous year. The prize there continues to be the same, according to the Association of Builders.

Kosovo Statistics Agency data (ASK) shows that the average cost of construction in 2021 and 2022 has marked increases of up to 16 percent compared to 2020.

But in the last quarter of last year, the construction cost has dropped by 0.6 percent, the ASS data released this month shows.

“Price of new residences can hardly mark decline. There has been no [great] drop in construction cost”, says the chairman of the Association of Builders of Kosovo, Faton Hoxha, for Radio Free Europe.

Almost all costs and construction materials are at the same price. A small price drop has had cement and iron”, he says.

In a statement to REL in March last year, Hoxha has said the price of iron has increased by 40%, compared to a year earlier, while cementing for 80%.

Both of these products, according to him, have had a slight decline at the end of last year -- cement for 5% and iron for 10% -- but continue to be high prices compared to 2020.

Meriton Cana, from a real estate agency in Pristina, says he does not expect the prices of new residences to fall this year, in view of the fact that they are built with more expensive materials.

There are two prizes in real estate that bidder and sale. In the first three months of this year, we have noted that bidding prices have not dropped, but price negotiations are starting to get bigger than before”, he says.

Another factor that holds high the price of dwellings is the highest price of land.