In the first half of 2026, 16,126 transactions were registered on the Macedonian property market - 11,395 sales and 4,731 leases. That is a 2.2 percent rise in the number of transactions compared with the same period last year. But the figure that actually says something is a different one: 625.7 million euros in total sales value.

That is 109.7 million euros more than in the first half of 2025, a rise of 21.3 percent. Compared with the first half of 2024, the increase is 40 percent.

Read the two numbers together: the number of transactions rose by 2.2 percent, the value by 21.3. So it is not that a lot more is being sold - it is being sold for a lot more.

The record: 168,000 euros for 50 square metres

The highest price per square metre was registered in the Centar municipality at 206,640 denars, or around 3,360 euros per square metre. It concerns a flat with a total area of 50 square metres - 46 of them living space and four ancillary - sold for 168,000 euros according to the notarial deed.

In the same period, a house in the Karpos municipality sold for 1.5 million euros.

These are the extremes, not the average, and that needs saying out loud. The average price of older-build flats in the first half of the year was highest in Centar - 1,547 euros per square metre, followed by Aerodrom at 1,532 and Karpos at 1,523. For developer-built flats the highest average is in Centar at 1,712 euros, with Karpos at 1,167.

Aerodrom, Centar, Karpos - and three other municipalities going the other way

The highest sales value among municipalities was recorded in Aerodrom with 83.8 million euros, then Centar with 78.3 and Karpos with 62.8 million.

At the same time, sales value fell in Struga by 24 percent, in Tetovo by 21, in Strumica by 17 and in Kisela Voda by 16 percent. That is the other half of the story, the half rarely told: while three Skopje municipalities are breaking through the ceiling, four other municipalities are in decline.

Rents jumped by almost a third

The total amount of monthly rents rose by 29.4 percent. That is the figure that hits hardest the people buying nothing at all - the ones who simply want somewhere to live.

The largest share of sales is held by flats with 3,746 transactions and agricultural land and forests with 3,703, which together with houses and building land make up around 89.9 percent of all sales. By value, flats lead with 289.1 million euros, followed by houses with 101 million.

What actually measures affordability?

A record sale at 3,360 euros per square metre is good news for one seller and information for everyone else. But the affordability of a home is not measured by the highest price ever achieved; it is measured by the ratio between prices and incomes - how many people can secure a decent home without a burden that suffocates them.

The median price says more than the record. Unfortunately, the median price rarely makes a headline.