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Serbia is developing a unified real estate listings database and a separate portal for verified agencies. The project aims to reduce fake listings, duplicates and conflicting information about apartments. The initiative, led by real estate professionals, forms part of a market development strategy through 2030.

Unified Real Estate Listings Database in Serbia

The Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PKS) has presented a development strategy for Serbia’s real estate market through 2030. Its priorities include tackling unlicensed brokerage and misleading advertising, digitalizing the industry and improving professional qualifications. The plan also calls for a shared property database and a separate listings portal. These measures are intended to improve the reliability of housing information and make the work of registered agencies more transparent.

Real estate expert Milić Đoković, who is involved in the project, said the property listings portal would bring together offers from vetted agencies that follow a professional code of conduct. Listings are expected to contain accurate, up-to-date details on floor area, layout and other property characteristics. This should make it easier to compare properties and reduce inconsistencies between listings published by different brokers. The specific requirements for agencies wishing to join the platform have not yet been released.

Work on Serbia’s unified real estate listings database began in 2025, Đoković told RTS. He said information is already being added to the system, and preparations could be completed by spring 2027. No official launch date has been announced. There has been no announcement that existing property websites will close or that all listings must move to the new portal; the procedure for checking property information also remains unclear.

Duplicate Listings and Inflated Housing Prices in Serbia

On Serbian property websites, the number of advertisements does not always reflect how many homes are actually available for sale. Đoković cited a portal carrying 11,000 listings, although he estimates that buyers can choose from only 2,000–3,000 available properties. Many entries are duplicates or outdated offers. This creates a distorted picture of the housing available on the market.

The same apartment may be advertised by several agencies, sometimes with different information about its size, floor, layout and price. Buyers may treat these advertisements as separate options, spending time reviewing them and contacting brokers. They later discover that the listings refer to a single property or that it has already been sold. Such practices make it harder to search for housing, compare prices and gauge the actual volume of sales.

Unrealistic asking prices are another problem. Đoković gave the example of an apartment worth around €300,000 on the market whose owner wants €400,000 for it. This gap makes property valuations more difficult because advertised prices can differ significantly from the amounts paid in completed transactions. A unified database could help compare information and identify discrepancies, but it would not be able to force sellers to lower their prices.

Real Estate Agency Oversight in Serbia

Real estate agencies in Serbia are already regulated by the law on property sales and rental brokerage. Companies and sole traders may provide these services only after entering the government register. Registration requires professional liability insurance, suitable office premises and at least one specialist who has passed the professional qualification exam. These requirements apply regardless of plans to establish a unified property listings database.

Article 18 of the law sets advertising requirements: listings must include the agency’s name, registration number, price, location, floor area and property layout. Advertising a property without an agreement with the client or another intermediary is prohibited. The requirement to display an agency’s registration number is therefore already in force; it is not a new rule scheduled for 2027. It remains unclear what additional checks the planned portal will carry out.

Buyers can check whether a company is authorized to provide brokerage services through Serbia’s official register of real estate intermediaries. The register is maintained by the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade and can be consulted free of charge. It allows users to verify an agency’s name and registration details, but registration does not guarantee that a particular listing is accurate. Buyers still need to check ownership, property characteristics and contractual terms separately.

Cadastre and Actual Transaction Prices in Serbia

Serbia has government services that allow people to check property details and analyze prices. The eKatastar electronic cadastre, operated by the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ), provides information about registered properties and the rights attached to them. The Real Estate Price Register records the amounts stated in completed contracts, allowing users to compare advertised prices with actual sale prices. As of November 9, 2026, there has been no official confirmation that listings on the future portal will be checked automatically against cadastre records.

How to Verify Real Estate in Serbia

In the first half of 2026, the total value of real estate transactions in Serbia rose by 10.1% to €4.2 billion, the Republic Geodetic Authority (RGZ) reported. The number of registered contracts, however, increased by only 0.2% to 61,343. Apartment transactions accounted for €2.5 billion, or 61% of the total value: their combined value rose by 11.4%, even as the number of apartment sales fell by 1.9%. The difference between the growth in transaction value and the number of contracts indicates a higher average transaction amount.

Serbia’s Real Estate Market: January–June 2026

Serbia is also modernizing its cadastral infrastructure with support from the World Bank. In July 2024, the institution approved a €30 million loan to develop property registration systems, improve access to information and introduce mass valuation tools. This program is intended to upgrade government services, not to create a portal for real estate agencies. There is no evidence that the funding will be used for the proposed listings database or to integrate it technically with the cadastre.

What This Means for Investors

International Investment analysts note that the value of a unified database to investors will depend on data quality rather than the number of published listings. The same apartment can currently be advertised by multiple agencies with different specifications and prices, inflating the apparent supply of properties. Removing duplicates and updating information promptly would make it easier to assess competition among sellers and compare prices for similar homes. However, creating a portal would not in itself change market prices or the number of completed transactions.

Investors need to distinguish between asking prices and the amounts paid in actual sales. In the second quarter of 2026, real estate sales in Serbia declined even as the total value of transactions increased. This trend shows that higher transaction turnover does not necessarily mean stronger demand in terms of sales volume. The new platform could make asking prices easier to compare, but assessing liquidity would still require statistics on completed transactions.

It is not yet clear how often agencies will have to update advertisements, who will be responsible for removing duplicates or whether data will be exchanged with the government cadastre. Without these mechanisms, the shared database could reproduce the shortcomings of existing listing aggregators. With regular checks, it could improve the reliability of market information, but it would not eliminate the risks of inflated prices or legal restrictions.

FAQ

Why is Serbia creating a unified real estate listings database?

The Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PKS) is preparing a database and portal featuring offers from verified agencies. The project aims to reduce duplicate and outdated listings and errors in property descriptions.

When will Serbia’s unified real estate database be launched?

Preparations could be completed by spring 2027. An official launch date for Serbia’s property listings portal has not yet been announced.

Where can buyers find actual apartment sale prices in Serbia?

Serbia’s Real Estate Price Register, maintained by the RGZ, contains data from completed contracts. Buyers can use it to compare advertised apartment prices with actual transaction values.

How can buyers verify a real estate agency in Serbia?

A brokerage firm’s registration can be checked in Serbia’s government register of real estate intermediaries. The agency’s registration number must appear in its advertisements.

How can buyers check an apartment through Serbia’s property cadastre?

The eKatastar electronic cadastre provides information about registered properties and ownership rights. Automatic verification of advertisements against cadastral records in the new database has not yet been confirmed.