Ivana Stankovic

Master of Science Thesis 2005/06
KTH, Stockholm
properties. Private properties were turned into public owned assets without any reimbursement.
Big housing owners were allowed to keep only as was considered enough for their family and
the rest was nationalized. Usually, they were allowed to stay in the apartment they lived in, but
sometimes occupants changed. All maintenance was done by the Public Enterprise "City
Housing" that was founded for the purpose of maintenance of housing and public areas.
As in the suburbs, in the central area there were also
new apartment buildings built, but this time they were
public owned (Pic 8). They were also maintained by
public services, until the fall of the communist regime
(beginning of 1980s).
Pic 8 Housing built in the ‘60s in the
centre of Belgrade
Pic 9 Housing in the centre of Belgrade
With the introduction of a multiparty political system at
the beginning of the 1990s, and constitutional
disestablishment of private ownership maximum, the
old communist laws were de-legitimized. With the
beginning of the privatization process of public and
state owned assets, legal persons as carriers of the
right to manage, were brought into the situation to sell
not only the legally attained properties but also the
nationalized. This resulted in buying out the public
owned apartments much below market prices. Eighty
square meter apartments were bought for app 1000
euros, using inflation for lowering the already below
value prices. Also, nationalized apartments were
privatized (since inhabitants had the right of usage
under the communist regime). As new owners they got
the right to resell the apartments, which led to a
complicated current situation for dealing with
denationalization.
After the “privatization” in the ‘90s buildings and their
surroundings started to deteriorate, since public
services stopped operating. Furthermore, the
economic, social and political crisis influenced further
deterioration. It also led to a change in occupants. Old
inhabitants had to sell the apartments due to financial
reasons and new inhabitants couldn’t relate to the
surrounding in a sense of belonging (they bought only
the apartments). New inhabitants brought new life
styles. Many apartments were redecorated, trying to
use every available square meter. This led to changes
in façades mostly in the inner courtyards (i.e.
balconies were turned into apartment space,
sometimes used as additional storage area) (Pic 9.).
Also some street facades suffered the changes. Due to
lack of parking space people started using the inner
courtyards for parking.
Most changes occurred in 1999 and 2000, when people
used (or better said misused) the Law on Planning and
Building in Serbia. According to the Law, in article 90 it
is stated that “Building new or executing additional
building operations on existing buildings can be done
Ivana Stankovic
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