In accordance with the rapid pace of digitalisation, City Expert has quickly grown to become the leading real estate agency
The transformation of City Expert isn’t merely a response to the needs of the market, but also a revolution in the way business is done in the real estate domain. Speaking in this interview, City Expert CEO Miloš Mitić reveals the key elements of this evolution and the way online apartment sales and rental adapt the market to modern demands.
City Expert has grown quickly from a start-up to the leading real estate agency. Is that just what the market needed? How do online sales and rentals of apartments actually function?
— Since it was established in 2015, City Expert has been developing constantly, responding to market needs and embracing innovations fearlessly.
We quickly recognised the dynamics of contemporary society and the ever-increasing need for a simple, transparent and efficient process when it comes to buying or renting real estate. We adapt to market changes and risks while staying true to our vision of transparency towards the client, efficiency and a complete real estate service in one place. In the spirit of these values, online apartment sales and rental have become our trademark.
We’ve witnessed the remarkable expansion of residential construction, rising real estate prices, interest rates, housing loans, numbers of apartments sold etc. How do you view the current market situation? Is stabilization on the horizon?
— Last year we faced challenges caused by a restrictive monetary policy and high interest rates over the past year, which resulted in a significant reduction in demand. The drop in demand primarily affected the existing housing market and led to a slowdown and stabilization of prices. Currently, we are faced with uncertainty, but there is noticeable continued stagnation of prices in the secondary market and a slight stabilization in the new developments market. Looking a bit further into the future, we expect a decrease in the Euribor rate at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which will likely stimulate increased activity among credit buyers and the market as a whole.
Apart from traditional sales and rentals, City Expert has two other profitable centres: New developments and Credit Advisor. How do they operate?
— Both ‘New developments‘ and the ‘Credit Advisor‘ form part of City Expert’s plan to expand and integrate the full range of real estate services. We also entered into new developments projects with the intention of improving that real estate segment. We currently collaborate with more than 200 investors across Serbia and have become a company that investors can fully depend on. We initiate cooperation by analyzing a potential construction location and the project’s return on investment level, conducting analysis of competitiveness and price, total project branding and marketing, ending with sale and contract compiling. We often like to say that our investor is obliged to build and that we are here to accompany them in all other challenges related to the sale of the project.
Our Credit Advisor service is the latest addition to the company’s portfolio and represents the first and largest financial broker on the Serbian market. The Credit Advisor is an advanced, fully digitalised and free service of City Expert that will help everyone seeking a mortgage or cash loan, as well as real estate, to quickly, easily and safely, and with the help of a personal advisor, reach the best offer. Everyone who’s ever considered buying real estate has found themselves confused by banking terminology, not knowing where to start or simply lacking the time required to devote themselves to searching for the best offer. City Expert’s Credit Advisor solves all of these problems.