{"id":40106,"date":"2025-02-03T10:29:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T08:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=40106"},"modified":"2025-09-10T08:42:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T06:42:50","slug":"renting-in-belgrade-a-burden-for-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/renting-in-belgrade-a-burden-for-many\/","title":{"rendered":"Renting in Belgrade: a burden for many"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA small flat in a quiet neighbourhood, just off the main pedestrian area, furnished and light\u201d \u2013 this is how a 13-square-metre flat in inner Belgrade was advertised. The photos show how small it really is: the shower cubicle is practically in the kitchen, which also has a toilet and a washbasin.<\/p><p>Despite its size, it isn\u2019t affordable for all.<\/p><p>The owner asked for the equivalent of 280 euros in rent, so a person on the minimum monthly wage of 370 euros would have only 90 euros left over for bills, food, heating and all other expenses in that month.<\/p><p>This is no exception.<\/p><p>From 19 June to 3 July 2024, the team of the <em>Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) analysed almost 1,600 advertisements for flats in Belgrade, and then compared them with the minimum wage and average salary. The data shows that the majority of flats in Serbia\u2019s capital are either unaffordable or place significant strain on people\u2019s budget.<\/p><p>We all have different priorities: one person looks for a flat in a particular area of the city, even if rents are higher there, while all that counts for another person is that they fork out as little as possible. CINS therefore went by the <em>United Nations<\/em>\u2019 method, which considers rental costs reasonable if they don\u2019t exceed 30% of a person\u2019s income. This expenditure refers to the rent alone and doesn\u2019t include other living-related costs.<\/p><p>As such, less than 14% of the flats in the 1,600-odd advertisements analysed were affordable for residents on average pay (slightly over 1,000 euros, according to the <em>Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia<\/em>), and not a single one for people on the minimum wage.<\/p><div class=\"fullws\"><div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/21389697\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/21389697\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"chart visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div><\/div><p>The most affordable flats were available far from the city centre or in municipalities on the outskirts: Grocka, Rakovica and Lazarevac, with an average rent under 400 euros. So, if you\u2019re on average pay, live alone and are looking for a flat in Belgrade, you\u2019ll find largely studios or small flats, and accommodation far from the centre.<\/p><p><strong>Ka\u0107a Lazarevi\u0107<\/strong>, a real-estate agent with many years\u2019 experience in Serbia, says several factors have caused rents in Belgrade to rise.<\/p><p>\u201cThe main reason is the shortage of rental accommodation, especially of flats for realistic rents that are affordable for most people: students, young workers and families without parental support who try to make ends meet with their meagre pay.\u201d<\/p><p>Covid made an extra mess of the market, as did the influx of Russians after the war in Ukraine began \u2013 \u201cthey didn\u2019t ask how much a flat cost\u201d, she explains.<\/p><p>Low-income earners had practically no choice \u2013 there were no flats for 30% of 370 euros.<\/p><p>Not even the cheapest flat mentioned at the beginning of this article fulfilled the basic requirements. Serbia\u2019s Act on Residence and Maintenance of Buildings specifies that the minimum amount of living space per person should be the equivalent of a studio or a flat of at least 22 square metres. As the number of household members increases, so too does the amount.<\/p><p>Lazarevi\u0107 is concerned by the level of rents. She adds that Serbia is rapidly heading towards western European prices, but the standard of living is much lower, which forces young people to lodge \u201cout in the sticks\u201d.<\/p><p>\u201cUnder these conditions they can neither secure a roof over their heads nor earn an income that would satisfy their wishes. I don\u2019t think this is a healthy situation.\u201d<\/p><div class=\"rmbox\"><h2 class=\"rmboxtitle\">Our methodology<\/h2><div class=\"rmboxteaser\"><p>In order to follow the development of rents in the capital and gauge whether people can afford them, the journalists from CINS analysed <em>Halo Advertisements<\/em>, a major multi-purpose advertising platform.<\/p>\r\n<p>In the course of 15 days in the second half of June 2024, we viewed almost 1,600 separate advertisements for rental accommodation in Belgrade. We compared them with the average salary and the minimum wage in that period.<\/p><\/div><\/div><h6><em>In partnership with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeandatajournalism.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Data Journalism Network<\/a><\/em><\/h6><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-39886 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/EDJNet-logo-full.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"637\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/EDJNet-logo-full.jpg 637w, https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/EDJNet-logo-full-576x207.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/EDJNet-logo-full-150x54.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Analysis of almost 1,600 advertisements shows that flats in Belgrade are unaffordable for low-income earners and a major obstacle for people on an average wage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":40114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,1583],"tags":[2211],"class_list":["post-40106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-serbia","tag-edjnet","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Renting-in-Belgrade-A-Burdain-for-Many-CINS-16x9-1.jpg","author_additional":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40106"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40120,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40106\/revisions\/40120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}