Starting September, the city commission will be confiscating locations from the investors who have not started or finished planned construction works for years. The final version of the new Law on planning and construction is ready, and it is expected that it will be forwarded to the Government by the end of the month. Its adoption will make it possible for public prosecutor to initiate confiscation of land more actively than before.
“We have recently been given the opportunity, and we internally agreed, in the authorized agencies, to start confiscation of non-developed land“, says Strahinja Sekulić, the city public prosecutor. “We will have more work to do because we are going to launch series of initiatives for confiscation. We have submitted several requests so far, but the big problem is what to do with facilities whose construction commenced. Investors invested their money in such facilities, and the solutions to that kind of problems will vary from case to case“.

The Secretariat for Ownership-Legal Affairs will soon make the property map in order to determine how many disputable locations exist in the city. Over the last two years, the Commission that takes away land from users has returned only 15 locations to the city, although there are 573 locations whose users did not start construction works on them. One of the examples is the Museum of Revolution of Peoples and Nations of Yugoslavia, which was supposed to be built between the Palace of Serbia and the building of “Ušće“ in New Belgrade. More than 30 years have passed since the beginning of construction, and the tunnels at over 5,000 square meters, five meters below the surface, are overwhelmed with trash and rubble.
Architect Branka Bošnjak says that the role of public prosecutors will be made stronger by the new Law, so that many locations will be confiscated from the investors by the end of the year.
“All deadlines have expired and, as soon as the Law is put in effect, the conditions will be created for commencement of confiscation of about 4m square meters in the city, which have been frozen for years“, says Bošnjak.
The current Law does not stipulate precisely which moment should be taken as the beginning of investment, it does not explain what should be done with the investors who does not exist anymore, like the ruined companies. Also, the Law does not explain how the state should deal with those investors who ran out of the funds for continuation of construction.

The latest edition of AG Real Estates as a SPECIAL edition will appear on the first day of REBEC fair. That will be the collection of chosen projects currently being done in Serbia and projects which are in different phases of preparation or production. This edition will contain projects that will not be promoted at REBEC fair.

Director of MAPIC fair (www.mapic.com), Mr. Edward Jervis has confirmed his arrival to a REBEC event. Mapic is actually a specialized fair for exhibiting companies dealing with the development of real estate in the sphere of shopping malls. In this way, presentation of specialized real estate fairs from the overall range of Reed Midem organization will be particularly represented. Mr. Edward Jervis will be a plenary speaker at REBEC Conference!

The arrival of ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) representatives to REBEC fair was confirmed. Mr. Andrew Tolmie will be present at the ICSC stand, which serves as an indicator that REBEC has already met the expectations even before its premiere. It is also expected to start the initiative about commencing cooperation with certain ICSC committees at REBEC conference.

Belgrade, June 3, 2008

At yesterday's press conference in Media Center, the organizers of REBEC event confirmed participation of the representatives of MIPIM Horizons, which will have its premiere this year in Cannes between December 2 and 4. That is another proof that REBEC attracted required attention. At the presentation scheduled for June 23rd, Natalie Depetro, the Project Manager of MIPIM Horizons, and Severine Menut, the Sales Manager, will give all necessary information on this expo. It is expected that MIPIM Horizons and REBEC will experience noticeable development in the years to come.

We are happy to announce that Peter Harradine (www.harradine-golf.com) accepted the invitation of the organizer of REBEC. Mr Harradine is the most acknowledged golf course architect in the world with the prestigious projects implemented all around the world. He confirmed his participation in the first panel discussion at REBEC conference. The topics of that panel discussion are: city planning development in Serbia, greenfield and brownfield investments and final beginning of development of golf industry in Serbia. Since there is no real golf course with all expected accompanying contents in Serbia yet, and since the commencement of development of two grandiose golf projects in Serbia has been announced, this will be an exceptional opportunity for the expected development to be carried out according to current world's standards. Thus, Serbia could become a respectable destination with acknowledged and desired golf contents within next five years, which will finally make the competition in this industry in the region move from the still point!

The third Real Vienna Real Estate Expo, which deals with the real estate development in the countries of east, central and southeast Europe, will be held between May 27 and 29. The representatives of the organisers of REBEC show will visit this expo and present potentials of Serbian real estate market and investments to all interested visitors!

The organizers of REBEC announce that the first press conference will be held on June 3rd, at 11 AM. All details related to the whole event will be announced on that occasion. Also, the representatives of the sponsors, as well as certain institutional authorities, will be present at the press conference. The names of all speakers who confirmed their participation will be announced and published on our web site, as well as all dates of the presentations and accompanying press conferences in connection with REBEC manifestation!