Kosovo has one of the highest property ownership rates in Europe. According to ASK's 2024 "Ownership status of house and dwelling" data, 95.0% of households in Kosovo are the legal owners of the house they live in (or are in the process of obtaining a legal title deed).
. The rate of those paying rent at market rate (tenants or subtenants) remained at a very marginal level of only 1.7%.
. This proves that the need for housing is solved by direct property acquisition rather than renting.
The most striking data to be examined in terms of real estate investment is the use of mortgages. While the rate of people owning a house by paying a mortgage was 4.7% in 2018
, this ratio has gradually melted over the years; It decreased to 2.7% in 2020 and 0.0% in 2024
. This sharp statistics shows that the culture of buying a house with a bank loan is not established in the Kosovo real estate market or that the long-term housing financing conditions offered by banks are not preferred by the consumer.
In light of the uploaded ASK data, construction and real estate developers need to consider two key issues when approaching the Kosovo market:
This necessitates construction companies developing housing in Kosovo to produce their own financing solutions. Projects in the market are generally based on the Kosovo diaspora (Kosovars living abroad), which has high cash purchasing power, or on flexible installment opportunities offered by the contractor company (promissory note, phased payment, etc.). Therefore, a company that will invest in construction in Kosovo will have a competitive advantage if it has a strong strategy regarding non-bank financing and collection models.