Residential preferences, housing affordability and building construction challenges during COVID-19 pandemics: Case study of Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on residential preferences, housing affordability and building construction issues that have been experienced through housing sector in Serbia, especially in the case of its capital city Belgrade. The starting research question is whether COVID-19 pandemic further potentiated the already present socio-spatial issues emerging since the beginning of post-socialist urban transition. The methods used in this study include comparative analyses of statistical data and research findings on housing in the period 1990-2020 and available relevant data and knowledge in this field from the first quarter of 2020 until today. Regarding residential preferences, some recent research showed that the situation of pandemic exacerbated already encapsulated lifestyles and fear from economic recession, as well as it prompted changes of living patterns towards longer duration of staying at home. The pandemic has further disrupted affordability of housing for all social groups, and mostly for the disadvantaged ones. On the other hand, the world pandemic that nobody could predict the end of, has opened up some new opportunities in the construction sector, such as an intensified use of digital technology.