(AG Real Estate) Mega project : Shopping complex “Brdo” in Belgrade

Lately, the most often question is: Why to invest in Serbia? Even more frequent answer is: Serbia is the market with the greatest potentials in the region! If we take the expected and confirmed projections of positive development of real estate market in Serbia in consideration, we can come to the conclusion that this question and the expected answer represent a modest reflection of real expectations!

Over the last few years, Serbia registers average economic growth of 7%. High foreign currency reserves of nearly 14 billion EUR guarantee stability of the national currency, while total foreign debt does not exceed one third of the gross national product. With the annual inflation of less than 10%, the real estate market in Serbia represents the branch of economy with the best prospects. Growing purchase power of population and comprehensive recovery of the economy daily increase and dictate demand for each type of property.

This information is best demonstrated by extreme lack of contemporary retail and modernly designed urbanistic units where purchase and sale, that is, trading activities, can be carried out. According to the reliable information, Belgrade alone lacked about 800,000 square meters of various retail and shopping center space three years ago. In the meantime, not more than 200,000 square meters of such space have been developed, which confirms the “public secret“ that such projects in Serbia, and not only in Belgrade, represent a viable business for future investors.

Belgrade, City of Future …

In mid-2006, specialist magazine Foreign Direct Investment, published by grandiose The Financial Times group, awarded a prestigious title of the City of future of southeast Europe to Belgrade. Belgrade lies on two rivers and two corridors. It is the city with the centuries-old tradition and culture and it now lies on the crossroads of corridors 10 and 7. The city that represents the geographic center of the region with about 100m citizens utilizes 7 transportation, road-railway-water routes. The title of the City of future is justified by the fact that about 1,000 km of streets have been reconstructed over the past four years and that some sections of the city plumbing and sewerage have gone through radical changes. Also, telecommunication system and capacities in the city have been drastically refurbished and improved. With the completed bypass around the city and construction of, at least, one bridge on the Sava and one bridge across the Danube, Belgrade will additionally justify the title of the most recommendable destination for real estate investments, especially in the retail sector.

On the other hand, the existing land-utilization plans have started to favor development on previously inactive locations. The focus of development is being gradually moved from New Belgrade and the area along the highway to the west to the locations on southwest, south, southeast and east banks of the city.

The area where the southwest approach to the city, also known as Ibarska main route, intersects with the bypass in the vicinity of Orlovačka cloverleaf interchange represents a real jewel of development of new urbanistic visions, contents and quality.

Micro Location

Borough of Čukarica is one of 17 city boroughs and, according to the latest data, about 300,000 people live in this borough. Previous development land-utilization plans for this territory mainly favored construction of dense and multistorey buildings. Rare residential development was less favored. The existing network of retail facilities was not in accord with such development, so that several researches proved that this city area lacked modern retail space. It was also noticed that the people who lived in that borough travelled 10 to 20 km to buy family supplies. They even went shopping on the other side of the Danube, in Banat.

Therefore, YU Kapital’s decision to first urbanistically organize about 100 ha of unconditioned land with incomplete infrastructure is worth attention for several reasons. First of all, that will be the territory whose contents, function and purpose will be unique in and in the vicinity of Belgrade. Second of all, the area will be divided into 17 urbanistic units, 15 of which will be at 3 to 5 ha, one at 7.5 ha and one at 13 ha. In that way, a brand new shopping destination, of which working title is Shopping Complex “Brdo“, will be developed in a very short time. Third of all, that will become a widely recognizable complex and the symbol of southwest banks of Belgrade.

Functional purpose of this project is obviously defined by the needs of an average citizen of Belgrade and his wish to buy everything he needs at one place. It should be expected that one such complex, like anywhere else in the world, includes specialized retail spaces where the buyers will be able to satisfy all their shopping needs concerning furniture, textile, tools, etc. There will also be multiplex cinemas, various laundries, fashion, footwear, food and fast food stores and shops.

It is necessary to point out that the concept of the project conceived in this way is not new from the urbanistic viewpoint, but it has never been brought to existence in Serbia. What awakes certain optimism and additional trust is the fact that the need for existence of one such complex has, obviously, been grasped along with the need for its development on the city banks. Having in mind the scope of activities related to introduction of infrastructure on that land, it is more than clear that this project will be a success.

Having in mind that this location gravitates towards the bypass and that the new Orlovačka cloverleaf interchange will resolve most of the current traffic problems, the investors can hope that the offered program and concept of this location will attract big number of people from the other parts of the city who haven’t had either will or desire to come to this neighborhood before. Therefore, this “upper area“ of Čukarica will quickly grow into a new shopping node of Belgrade.

What is YU Kapital?

YU Kapital is a holding company that was founded in 2003. It is structured as a team of exceptional professionals with great experience in field of privatization, consulting, development and realization of theirs and other investors’ ventures and projects related to real estates and investments in general. Grasping the growing demands in the market of Serbia, they focused and specialized in transforming fresh and modern ideas related to real estate development in that market into effective projects whose accurate and precise strategies guarantee unmatched success.

Real estate market in Serbia is the developing branch of economy. The business philosophy of YU Kapital is based on collecting and selecting the right information at the right moment and their timely exploitation. Potential clients are offered the whole variety of professional services, which makes it possible for the clients on potential projects to count on early discovery of hidden costs, improvement of efficiency, minimization of operative costs and maximization of projected returns.

Having in mind the experience they gained all around Serbia, YU Kapital is a recommendable partner for the investors and companies which require services that include development of residential complexes, commercial and industrial zones by means of choosing the best way for their exploitation. This company also renders services of selection of possible improvements for the existing potentials through comprehensive expert reports and analyses.

Main Activities

YU Kapital provides full service and necessary know-how through realization of specialist activities. Also, YU Kapital has established a partnership with Adria Consulting where the latter does the activities that include market research, appraisal and designing of all types of technical feasibility studies. By the way, YU Kapital permanently provides land in industrial and commercial zones for its own projects and the projects of its clients. The initial focus on Belgrade and its surroundings has been expanded in the meantime in order to include the interest in main industrial, economic and social centers of Serbia, such as Šabac, Niš and Kragujevac, where the selection of suitable micro locations has been carried out carefully. Development of sites for multipurpose (commercial-residential) projects on the central locations in Belgrade represents a special segment of operations of the company as a Holding. By launching the new brand of retail spaces, YU Kapital develops them as the core of activities of the entire Holding, from the idea to the full realization. This company currently works on ten locations - five in Belgrade and five all around Serbia. In this segment, YU Kapital is open for any kind of partnership.

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