“After 10 years of dedication to retail projects in the country and the region, we continued to redirect our business strategy to other segments of the real estate market in the region. Part of the team is already working extensively on projects in Croatia, and we are in negotiations for projects in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Even though, by this business strategy, after almost 10 years, we ended cooperation with our long-term client CPI PG, on the projects of STOP SHOP retail parks, we remain faithful to the retail sector, in which our company was born and developed. We will continue in a professional and modern way with the ongoing retail projects that recorded excellent results in 2023.”, emphasizes Mia Zečević, CEO of the Novaston platform
Novaston has already become a recognizable name in the field of management of retail parks and shopping centers. How do you assess the current market situation?
We are witnessing extremely large and challenging geopolitical turbulences, which are leaving their mark in all segments of business globally. I can freely say that this is especially felt in retail, whose development in Serbia has always depended on the percentage of new brands entering the market, especially foreign ones. This trend has slowed significantly in the last three years, which is felt at all levels of this market. On the other hand, the concept of retail parks proved much more resistant to the crisis compared to shopping centers, which attracted many new investors to build retail parks, so many new projects of this form will come to life during the next year. We will soon meet the saturation of the market with this concept, especially considering the uncertainty of the current political situation and its impact on the survival of current and the arrival of new retailers on the market. Survival in such demanding times mostly depends on flexibility, the ability to adapt to changes and the diversity of content, which is why changes are inevitable in all fields. The policy of our NOVASTON platform is not to wait to feel the impact of the surrounding changes but to initiate the changes, which is why we made a major turnaround in business.
What is the situation when it comes to office space and will the “work from home” or hybrid model survive? What are Novaston’s plans in this market segment?
As for business space in Serbia, research shows that the market of business space in Serbia can still develop, it has a lot of potential, especially if you consider the surrounding countries and cities, such as Budapest or Bucharest. The prices per square meter in these countries, especially in Hungary and Romania, are more or less like ours, but the availability of office space is much higher, sometimes even more than twice. The only place where office space is “cheaper” is Zagreb. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly had a big impact on the business space market, which gave birth to a world phenomenon called working from home, and subsequently “hybrid” work. Initially, from the cost side, employers saw this way of working as a benefit. At one point, the results also showed that – that the efficiency was at a high level. However, in the long run, it turned out that everything is not so great after all. The separation of teams, the lack of business culture and the feeling of working (the way we are used to it) began to slowly show their negative sides. There was a problem with the feeling of readiness, that is “connections” of employees, so large companies and corporations began to return their employees to their offices slowly. Of course, this all depends on the activity of the company itself, and accordingly, we believe that this “hybrid” model will become established as a type of business. Accordingly, we actively collaborate with our clients to find the optimal option for them, reflected in a multifunctional business space adaptable to the company’s activities.
What are Novaston’s plans in the coming period?
After 10 years of dedication to retail projects in the country and the region, we continued to redirect our business strategy to other segments of the real estate market, as we initially started before the coronavirus. Our special focus will continue to be the office and residential sector, and we are actively preparing a completely new business concept that we will present to the domestic market. Part of the team is already working extensively on projects in Croatia, and we are in negotiations for projects in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. Even though, by this business strategy, after almost 10 years, we ended cooperation with our long-term client CPI PG, on the projects of STOP SHOP retail parks. The cooperation lasted almost 10 years, and our entire team, together with the investor and local representatives, is responsible for the fact that STOP SHOPS in Serbia have always been among the best compared to other European countries.
On the other hand, we will not completely turn our backs on the retail segment in which our company was born and developed. We will continue in a professional and modern way with the ongoing retail projects, which are a landmark in 2023 or excellent results despite the global crisis, while in parallel we develop new ones that will come to life during the next year. We have an exciting year ahead of us, in which we will certainly lay the foundations for new successes for our company, as well as for our clients.