Photo: PixabayThe price of iron, steel, lumber has been falling in recent months. This trend is followed by the price of copper, which is the cheapest in the last 17 months. This contributed to the stabilization of real estate prices, but we should not expect new construction to become cheaper in the near future, experts say.
Three months ago, copper cost more than $10,000 per metric ton, and today it is between $7,500 and $8,000. Uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine and negative signals on the market, according to experts, led to a drop in the prices of metals and timber. Forecasts are that the demand for these products will be lower in the coming period, writes rts.rs.
Bojan Stanić from the Analytical Sector of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce says that in recent weeks the probability that a recession will occur in Europe and in general on a global level has been increasing.
"But on the other hand, China's announcement that it will not be able to provide stimulus funds to its manufacturing industry as it did in 2008, 2015 and 2020, when the same crises hit the world, but that this time it will use those funds to fill the deficits in to their local cash registers," says Stanić.
The warehouses say that it is getting harder and harder to get goods and that some deliveries are waiting for several months. In addition, prices change almost on a weekly basis.
"Rebar is currently 130 dinars per kilogram, and block, which was 37-38 dinars last year, is now over 70. Gravel has jumped 30 percent. The iron is now in order, the biggest problem now is the realization of the products we ordered", says Mladen Lučić, representative of "Lukom" from Majur near Šabac.
A MAJOR REDUCTION OF PRICES OF SQUARE METERS SHOULDN’T BE EXPECTED
Cheap metal products and lumber have stabilized real estate prices, experts say. However, we should not expect a greater reduction in the price of square footage.
"Everything has become more expensive - from aluminum carpentry, thermal insulation, waterproofing, brick products, air conditioning systems," says Dušica Daković, director of Novi Dorćol projects.
Armature, i.e. steel, says Daković, is used in the construction phase, which is called construction, and it accounts for 15-20 percent of the total cost of building a building, so the cheapening, i.e. the increase in the price of steel affects the cost of construction, but not to such a large extent that now citizens expect the prices of apartments and shops in new construction to be halved, just as steel became cheaper.
"As there was a sudden drop in the price of construction materials, there can also be a sudden jump due to an unstable market." We also have to take into account that the costs of transporting construction materials are high due to the crisis," says Jovana Perić, coordinator of advertising advisors on the Sasomanga portal.
He points out that he does not expect investors and real estate owners to think about reducing prices.
„I sada se vidi da cene kvdrata u novogradnji idu do 10.000 evra i očekuje se da će taj trend da se nastavi i u narednom periodu“, kaže Perićeva.
Fluctuating prices of metals and construction materials, experts say, will increase investors' caution when making decisions about construction. And real estate prices will continue to be largely determined by demand, which is at a high level in Serbia. Especially in larger cities, such as Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš.
Source: rts.rs
