In the last three months of 2020, the market saw a billion euros in cash. Is the origin of the money being monitored at the time of purchase? More than 80 percent of real estate transactions have been paid in cash by the parties, while the remaining 20 percent have been financed through credit. However, there are no additional data on how many resources from credit appeared in the real estate market in the form of cash. If a citizen buys an apartment from another person using a loan, that other person then has the resources at their disposal, which they may use to buy two smaller apartments. It can then continue, meaning the money initially obtained from a loan will appear multiple times in the real estate market statistics as a cash purchase. Experts from the Serbian Chamber of Notaries point out that most apartments in that country are bought in cash, although the average salary is around 500 euros, which raises questions about the origin of the money and whether it is monitored at all during the purchase of real estate. Notaries believe "that the concept of cash is being misinterpreted when it is said that most real estate transactions in Serbia take place in cash." Beograd's Politika newspaper covered this topic, starting with the fact that in the last three months of 2020, around a billion euros passed through the Serbian real estate market in cash. A total of approximately 130,000 real estate units were bought or sold on the market in 2020, of which 80-90,000 were apartments, 80 percent of which were paid in cash. Prices in Belgrade can reach up to 3,000 euros per square meter, while prices across the country are lower, at less than 800 euros. Who can afford to pay for an apartment immediately, especially if the regulations do not allow cash transactions exceeding 10,000 euros, is the question raised in the analysis. Is this a form of money laundering? Tax experts respond that there may indeed be some such cases, but it does not necessarily mean that it is operating as such. "If you sell a larger apartment to buy a smaller one, and you take out a loan, there is no money laundering there. And there are buyers who cannot prove it, but the procedures are not being pursued," says Đerđ Pap, a tax expert and former director of the Tax Administration. He emphasizes that the recently enacted Law on the Origin of Property is not being applied. However, experts in the field of commerce and real estate agents warn that if suspicious transactions (transfers) exist, they logically do not go through a legitimate channel, through real estate agencies, which, according to the Law on Preventing Money Laundering, are obligated to perform all the necessary risk analyses. "Those who hang a sign saying 'direct sale' on the construction site do not have the obligation to perform risk analyzes, to ask the buyer anything, or to report suspicious financial transactions," Kaća Lazarević, an agent, told Politika. According to her, those who have more money buy apartments in cash. "And they do not buy one, but multiple apartments, because they have realized that this is the safest investment during a crisis, and the best option is new construction. Many have decided to invest their money from the bank or safe in real estate - apartments, business premises," Lazarević stressed. However, real estate agents are not the problem, but rather, it is the construction sector that is the main issue, says Professor at the FEFA Faculty Goran Radosavljević. "A large amount of money passes through construction, which is not monitored in any way. The cash that enters construction through the construction of buildings enters legitimate channels and then those who have sold the land on which a building will be constructed appear as cash buyers. This large construction activity has no economic sense regardless of all the explanations. That people are returning from abroad and actually investing in real estate," Radosavljević said, emphasizing that all this suggests that there are illegal activities, but if the state were to put a stop to them, there would be a 10 percent drop in GDP. Source: Poslovni.hr

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