Predrag Savovic: In the real estate business, you make money when you buy, not when you sell

A competitive spirit is important in sports, but also in the real estate business. And real estate is everywhere - whatever you do in life has something to do with real estate. When it comes to the development of this sector, the potential is enormous, and the value will only continue to grow in the coming years. Therefore, if you are wondering whether the future lies in selling or renting out real estate, you could adopt the mantra – make or buy and keep. Because, in the real estate business, you make money when you buy, not when you sell.

That is what Predrag Savovic, a former professional basketball player with NBA (Denver Nuggets) and ACB (Bilbao Basket) experience, said at the very closing of the first Montenegrin RE:D Conference. After his sports career, Savovic successfully moved on to the business sector. He was president and CEO of Bilbao Basket, as well as the business development and marketing manager. He is a co-founder of Badais International and a member of the Management Board of Premier League Basketball.

He is also the founder of IBEXMONT Advisory, which successfully helps companies with internationalization and strategic sale of services and products, which also helps international investors in the domain of real estate in Montenegro. Since 2022, he has been the business development manager at Kai Capital Markets, an SFO fund from Santander, which focuses on ethical management and support to innovative and technologically advanced startups such as Inmoverse and Wypo, both from the field of proptech and fintech.

– In business, like in sports, you always have some kind of a competitive spirit. Sport is something completely pure for me, you can’t look for shortcuts, you have to follow a certain process instead. That’s what business is like too, considering that my specialty are startups and investments in real estate, you always have some kind of a competitive spirit and you are fighting against others. In the company I work in, when we are choosing the project that we want to present to the director, we analyze more than 35 points and that is the process I truly believe in, like in basketball – said Savovic.

Talking about real estate, he said that it was one of the most valuable businesses in the world. In addition to the success in the world, Savovic is now successfully building his business in Montenegro as well, in Herceg Novi, where he grew up.

– Real estate is, in fact, all we do. I like to mention wine, where people think that wine represents the food and beverage industry, but it is, in fact, totally a real estate industry. In order to grow grapes, you need land - real estate, in order to be able to produce it, you need production facilities – real estate again. In order to transport it somewhere, you need roads, and then also warehouses - commercial real estate. Finally, you need a place where you can consume the wine, so - real estate again. So, I’m asking you now, is wine a real estate business or a beverage one? This is, of course, somewhat hyperbolic, but it explains the essence - everything we do has to have something to do with real estate. The biggest investors in real estate are banks and insurance companies and that fact alone is very important and says enough about the importance of this sector – he said.

Savovic pointed to the importance of the digitization process and the use of technology in business. He mentioned the Wypo and Inmoverse projects on whose development he worked, and which are now of great help to everybody who operates in the real estate sector. When it comes to Montenegro, he believes that there has to be a certain digitization process, and on a state level at that.

– People don’t realize that digitization and automation do not automatically mean that we will lose our jobs. In fact, the point is that it helps us make the job simpler and exact. People would be more effective, and the economy itself can only grow with automation. In Spain, the digital government is very developed. It takes me only 10 seconds to pay my taxes – he said.

Talking about the tricks that helped him develop a successful business, Savovic said that things were very simple - you have to learn to listen carefully, but also to ask questions.

– The biggest trick I’ve learned is to open my ears and listed and to ask for help. My director once told me that one should ask a question and then let people talk. They will then open the door, and you only need to go through that door, take a look, extract the problem and find a solution for it - nothing else.

The innovative projects Inmoverse and Wypo were developed that way.

– We heard what the clients’ problems were, we worked with more than 300 agents, 20 banks, we asked them which problems they had met in doing business. After that, we saw what the best existing solutions were, we analyzed them for six months, upgraded them, adapted them to the Spanish market and made something that truly changes the manner of sales and purchase of real estate in Spain – pointed out Savovic.

Talking about the potentials of Montenegro, Savovic said that it had everything a country needs to grow.

– One of the reasons I came back is that I have privately started investing in real estate a bit more, because I believe that Montenegro has everything that a country needs to grow. We have a wonderful seaside, wonderful mountains… I have been here only 6 months, but we have already tried to bring investors from Germany, Austria, Spain, Great Britain, America. When you want to bring an investor to Montenegro, the biggest problem is that they don’t know the market, and people like to go where they feel comfortable. Still, we have sold several pieces of real estate to the English and Americans. When they come here, when they get to know Montenegro, they start to love it. It hasn’t happened yet that somebody comes to the country and remains indifferent – says Savovic.

He added that it was not good for Montenegro to compare itself to other countries and that, instead, it should look for a niche of its own, its own market, and position itself as a destination which maintains a certain level of luxury.

– I know that people would then think that foreigners would come, buy everything, forcing the local populace to move out. However, it doesn’t have to be that way, there are various formulas, such as S106 in Great Britain, where it is proscribed that the investor has to make 30% of the apartments as “affordable housing,” that is, for the prices to be affordable to the local populace. So, there’s a solution for everything – he points out.

Does the future lie in selling or renting out real estate?

– Our business model is based on the construction of family villas in ownership. My partner and I choose that model because we believe above all that Montenegro should position itself as a country where tourism is present throughout the year, and not just for 100, 120 days, the way it is now. Another reason is that I believe that the value of real estate in the coming years will grow further. I would therefore say to everybody - make or buy and keep. I always say that, in the real estate business, you make money when you buy, not when you sell. That is the mantra that we stick to – concluded Savovic.

D. O.

Predrag Savović

Badais International

IBEXMONT Advisory

Kai Capital Markets

Inmoverse

Wypo

RED Conference Podgorica

RED Conference

real estate

investing in real estate