Construction in Belgrade doubles – Quicker issuing of building permits initiates new investments

The quicker issuing of building permits has almost doubled the construction in Belgrade in 2016, stated Viktor Kobjerski, secretary of the Association of Construction at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) on Sunday, July 10.

- Thanks to the amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction, we are seeing a large number of construction cranes in Belgrade. We see that there's a much larger number of building permits being issued than last year and that the construction activity has increased by at least a 100% - Kobjerski said for Tanjug and pointed out that, based on that, it could be seen that the foreign capital investments in Serbia had increased.

- Foreigners are returning to Serbia, because it's much easier to get a permit here. The only remaining problem is the land registry, where the ownership of certain plots of land hasn't yet been fully determined – Kobjerski noted.

He expressed his expectation that the problem would soon be solved, that the planned construction work would start and that there would be even more construction activity in the next period.

The CCIS expert pointed out that many countries were interested in our civil engineers and that our companies, which were already present in the Russian market, might get the job of constructing the structure for the purpose of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the first such event in the country.

- There are lots of Serbian construction companies operating in Russia, and we are in the position of being able to create a consortium of small and medium enterprises and, if we get an offer to build a large complex for the World Cup, we will certainly accept it – Kobjerski emphasized.

He also stated that the Italians, who had recently visited CCIS, are interested not just in cooperating in Serbia, but also in realizing projects in other markets together with Serbian civil engineers.

In Serbia, electronic building permits are issued within eight workdays on average, said the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. From January 1, when electronic permits started being issued, till July 5, a total of 23,570 requests were submitted for the issuing of building permits, decisions and location conditions, which are solved ahead of the deadlines prescribed by the law, the Ministry informed Tanjug.

Also, the location conditions are being issued quicker, within 17 workdays on average. The decisions pertaining to Article 145 of the Law on Planning and Construction, popularly called “small building permits”, for the investment maintenance of structures, take an average of six workdays.

According to the data by the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, 829 building permits were issued in April, which is 9.9% more than in April 2015 and 40.7% more than in April 2014. Relative to the April average in the past 5 years, the number of building permits issued in April 2016 is larger by 24.1%, whereas the value of the construction work in the first four months was larger by almost 70% relative to the same period in 2015.