There are over 400,000 empty apartments in Tirana, how many should they be in Pristina?

What happened to reference prices is that it has increased the costs to builders, so now they will pay more taxes and therefore they will charge them to the buyer. But we're in a market where prices have gone too high and we don't know if the market will accept another price increase or start to cool”, said Armando Rock, imobilar agent in the interview for “Euroonews Albania”.

With a demand that cannot be stopped, new buildings are added year after year, while there are still many vacant apartments that are not used, creating a market imbalance. Our mark is actually inexplicable. Currently in Tirana there is demand, but on the other hand in Tirana we have a direct development: we have many empty apartments. There are about 40 or 50,000 empty apartments that don't come to the market either for rent or for sale, which then create this grown demand” -- he stressed.

According to the expert, taxation of unused apartments would bring an increase in the amount of property available in the market, and prices in the market would be harmonised, creating a cheaper property offer. In my view, the solution is taxation. To the west, property is taxed so that they are not left empty. In Albania, despite how much we complain about taxes, they are actually low. Since they are not taxed, they sit there on the blocked market. If they were to be taxed more gradually they'd go out on the market, and we'd have lower rents of course even lower sales prices” added among others.

High prices, but also the following demand, the expert claims there is an increase in demand for investment motives.

In Tirana they buy from all sides. They buy immigrants about 15% of new apartments that are built. 35% are the landowners and usually they don't sell, so there's about 50% of new apartments for sale. Migrants, parents from circles for children, people who have come to Tirana professional young people but investors for homes they want to rent. It's those who get used to Air B&B have seen the benefits of this approach, they get 2 3 4 houses to give with AirB&B”, and it's over. But when will this vicious circle stop? The expert says the market has already reached a peak of capacity, and with this large amount of property on the market, we can expect only a gradual cut in prices.

“Analysis shows that price hikes have come to an end. The prices have stabilised. The question is whether they will fall or not. Because we have many new buildings on the market potentially we can achieve a price cooling that the demand will eventually fall. My projection is up to the next six months or more can lower prices.” According to the VKM decision on reference prices, for the 32 cadastral areas of Tirana, tax reference values per square metre have risen from 5 to 76%.