Photo: pexels.comThe multi-year enormous growth in real estate prices seems to be stopping, at least judging by the big markets, such as Germany or the USA, where, in addition to declining traffic, prices are also falling.
In June alone, the purchase of single-family homes in the US decreased by about 60,000, or about 15%, which is the biggest drop since April 2020. Then the first wave of the pandemic brought an atmosphere of fear, so many people gave up on large investments, is one of the conclusions from Redfin's analysis. of the real estate market evaluation service, which is broadcast by the Croatian Poslovni dnevnik.
Now the pandemic has been replaced by inflation, which has reached 9.1% in the US, which is the biggest jump since November 1981.
The withdrawal of buyers, according to the analysis, was also influenced by the fact that the Federal Reserve (US central bank) increased interest rates by 75 basis points in June, so the average interest on a 30-year mortgage rose to six percent.
Although the media covered the news with the comments "the end of the boom" and "the game is over", experts still doubt whether there will be a complete collapse or whether this is just a continuation of the slowdown in growth. The German Spiegel also hinted at a downward trend in real estate prices, which they registered in at least a dozen of the largest cities.
"With us, the drop in prices will not be reflected so quickly." We have a slower realization, we have a very small number of credit requests, because banks hardly ask for real estate valuations for which they would approve a loan. Otherwise, credit buyers participate with about 20% in the Serbian market, while 80 percent of transactions are for "cash". The slowdown in turnover was caused by the announcement that there will be an increase in interest rates and the expectation that this growth will be significant, and most banks have a variable rate for home loans. It is true that there is a fixed rate, but it is much higher," real estate market analyst Kaća Lazarevic told Danas.
She emphasizes that the market lacks apartments of 50 to 60 m2 in the inner city, that there are new buildings, but they still have high prices and are often not of sufficient quality.
"The stoppage among customers was caused by bombastic and completely meaningless announcements that we will die of hunger, we will not have electricity and the like. Everyone is now waiting to see what will happen in the fall. Large buyers have generally withdrawn, and those who are building are also cautious, because they do not know whether the calculation they have made will come true. Ready-made houses are still very difficult to sell, but there is a great demand for plots. There, the offer is exhausted, so plots on the outskirts of the city are sold for two to three thousand euros each," says Lazarevic.
He adds that real estate rental is still a dynamic area, because the rumor that Russians and Ukrainians are buying apartments en masse is not exactly true. It is true that that first wave has passed, they have come and gone. And they prefer to rent rather than buy, which has raised the appetites of apartment owners, even though there are no such well-paying tenants anymore, says Lazarevic.
Source: danas.rs
