Residential development kicks off in New Belgrade's neighborhood Dr Ivan Ribar - First tenants expected in July 2013

(Dragan Djilas and Oliver Dulic on the building site)

The state-financed construction of 707 apartments in New Belgrade's Block 72 in Dr Ivana Ribara street started Thursday. The price of square meter of that residential space will amount to EUR 1,290, VAT included.

Serbian Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic announced during a tour of the building site that the first 500 apartments in Stepa Stepanovic neighborhood in Belgrade would receive tenants on May 3rd.

In that neighborhood, whose construction is also financed by the state, over 2,000 apartments have been sold at the price of EUR 1,290 per square meter.

- Nobody believed that the state would return to residential development in a big way. This is a proof that a serious work and the engagement of domestic companies can result in top-quality apartments at below the market price - said Dulic.

He stressed that the state's intention was not to make profit, but to offer quality, energy-efficient, registered apartments, built using top materials, at prices below the market ones.

Six buildings with 37,000 square meters of residential space are under construction in New Belgrade's Block 72. The value of this project, which will also include a kindergarten and office space, is EUR 37 million.

- First buildings in this neighborhood, where apartments will range in size from 30 to 85 square meters, should be finished in July 2013, whereas the rest of them will be built successively - said Director of the Serbian Construction Directorate Dragan Grujic

According to the words of Grujic, over 5,000 workers from more than 20 companies from all around Serbia will be working on this building site.

Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas said that in addition to new apartments that were under construction by the Serbian Construction Directorate, the terminal station of the future metro would also be built in six or seven years in Dr Ivan Ribar neighborhood.