IS SKOPJE'S HOUSING BUBBLE ABOUT TO BURST? TENS OF THOUSANDS OF LISTINGS, SALES DOWN 29%, AND LOANS ARE SQUEEZING CONSTRUCTION FIRMS!

Skopje is turning into one huge construction site, but the question is who will buy all those flats and how long construction investors can keep up with their financial obligations. On the classifieds sites Pazar3 and Reklama5, tens of thousands of listings for flats in Skopje are appearing. The combined search results are approaching 50,000, but that doesn't mean that many different flats are actually for sale. Some listings are repeated, and some don't relate exclusively to sales. What is already causing concern is the trend in sales. According to data published by the Cadastre, in the first quarter of 2026 sales of new-build flats in Macedonia fell by around 29% compared with the last quarter of 2025. But behind the numbers lies a much more serious question – how long can construction companies survive with unsold flats and regular financial obligations? Construction investors working with bank loans have to pay interest, service their maturing obligations to the banks, pay salaries and settle their debts to suppliers and subcontractors. Flats can sit unsold for months, but financial obligations don't wait. For example, a company with a loan of three million euros at an annual interest rate of 6% has an interest cost of around 15,000 euros a month, even without repaying the principal. Over a year that's 180,000 euros in interest alone. This is an illustrative calculation, not a confirmed interest rate for all construction companies. An additional problem is that high flat prices are increasingly limiting citizens' purchasing power. If sales slow down while financial obligations keep growing, some investors may be forced to cut prices, seek new loans or sell property to secure liquidity. Could Skopje face a wave of unsold flats, financial trouble for investors and falling prices? For now there isn't enough data to claim that the construction sector is on the verge of mass bankruptcy or that the housing bubble will certainly burst. But the risk for highly indebted investors is real, especially if sales continue to slow.