Albania ranks third in Europe after Belarus and Russia for the most expensive apartment prices, in relation to purchasing power, according to Numbeo data for the period January-July 2022, compiled by Monitor.
The index for the affordability of buying an apartment, which is measured by the ratio of the average selling price of houses and the average disposable income of families, expressed as years of income, for Albania is 15.8.
This means it would take around 16 years of all income being saved for a family to buy an apartment at the current market prices.
It analyses the net disposable income of a family, the average price of a square meter of property, and the cost of a 20-year loan. The lower this ratio is, the easier it is for families to buy a house.
For Belarus, which is rated as the most expensive country for apartment prices, a family needs 17.4 years of income, while in Russia, which ranks second, a family needs 16.8 years.
Regionally, Kosovo is the cheapest with citizens needing 11.7 years of salary. North Macedonia has 12.7. years, Montenegro 13.3 and Serbia, 14.8.
The cost of property has soared in the capital over the last couple of years. Apartments in the suburbs such as Astir or Kinostudio have reached EUR 1,100 per square metre from EUR 900 a year ago. In Blloku in central Tirana, new builds are being sold at EUR 5000 per square metre, increasing from EUR 3000- EUR 4000 the year before.
The Association of Builders claims the price increase is due to the rising cost of materials, increased salaries and taxes.
According to INSTAT data, at the end of the first quarter of 2022, the average salary in the country was 59 thousand ALL (EUR 500), with a decrease of 0.5% compared to the end of 2021 and 5.7% more than the same period of the previous year.
Considering that inflation is over 7%, the real increase in wages is negative.
