First apartments in location of former Stepa Stepanovic barracks to be ready for tenants in May 2012

(future look of the housing project)

First apartments within the housing project that is under construction in the location of former Stepa Stepanovic barracks in Belgrade will be ready for tenants in May 2012, while the whole residential and business complex is expected to be finished in late 2012, said Director of the Building Directorate of Serbia Dragan Grujic.

- About 50 companies from all around Serbia are currently working on the construction of 24 residential buildings with 2,235 apartments, spanning a total of 218,000 square meters - Grujic said after touring the building site, which was also visited by Serbian Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic and Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas.

The price of apartments ranges between 1,250 and 1,290 euros per square meter, inclusive of VAT.

The residential and business complex, which should become the home for about 13,000 people, will comprise a total of 4,578 apartments and 163 outlets, as well as 1,511 garages, two kindergartens, two schools, sports fields, a clinic, and a shopping center.

Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic said that the construction of that complex in the location of the former barracks in Vozdovac was "the best response to all those who claimed that such projects in Serbia were impossible".

- This is the biggest project in the Serbian construction industry in last 30 years, one of the largest construction projects in Europe at this moment, and definitely the biggest construction project in the Balkans - he stressed.

As Dulic pointed out, funds for the construction of these apartments are not provided from the budget but from banking loans that will be repaid once the apartments are sold.

- One of the greatest values of the project is the fact that we have managed to employ people at this building site where about 35,000 people will be working over the next six months - he said and added that it was only one out of 245 building sites in the country.

Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas stated that it meant a lot to Belgrade that people can buy apartments at some normal price.

Djilas also said that the city was supporting the construction of apartments in Vozdovac, as well as that it would support the construction of apartments in the housing project Dr Ivan Ribar.