The housing sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a phase where there is no shortage of cranes and construction sites, but the completion of the started housing units is not taking place at the same speed as it was before.
In 2025, 3,016 new apartments were completed, 11.8% less than in 2024, while on the other hand, the number of unfinished apartments at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 was 6,926, which is 26.4% more than in the same period last year. These figures, published by the BiH Agency for Statistics, together show a sector that starts building more than it manages to finish.
Main contractors
The data refer exclusively to new apartments in completely new buildings, but also include extended apartments on existing buildings built as new residential units.
Data on the number and area of completed apartments, as well as data on the number of unfinished apartments, are collected from the main contractors who have a direct contract with the investor (or build for their own needs, the market, etc.), according to the Agency’s report.
Almost 7,000 unfinished apartments indicate an increasing number of projects whose finalization is delayed, which may mean longer construction deadlines, delayed sales or strategic decisions by investors to wait for more favorable market conditions before completing and selling apartments.
The housing sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a phase where there is no shortage of cranes and construction sites, but the completion of the started housing units is not taking place at the same speed as it was before. In 2025, 3,016 new apartments were completed, 11.8% less than in 2024, while on the other hand, the number of unfinished apartments at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 was 6,926, which is 26.4% more than in the same period last year. These figures, published by the BiH Agency for Statistics, together show a sector that starts building more than it manages to finish.
Main contractors
The data refer exclusively to new apartments in completely new buildings, but also include extended apartments on existing buildings built as new residential units.
Data on the number and area of completed apartments, as well as data on the number of unfinished apartments, are collected from the main contractors who have a direct contract with the investor (or build for their own needs, the market, etc.), according to the Agency’s report.
Almost 7,000 unfinished apartments indicate an increasing number of projects whose finalization is delayed, which may mean longer construction deadlines, delayed sales or strategic decisions by investors to wait for more favorable market conditions before completing and selling apartments.
In 2025, 3,016 new apartments were completed, 11.8% less than in 2024.
The decline in realization comes after several periods of stronger expansion, when intensive construction was visible in larger urban centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During that period, investors were alert and quickly responded to the rise in prices and demand with a larger number of construction sites.
In 2024, the number of unfinished apartments in BiH was 5,479, and the year before 4,683, while the number of completed apartments in 2024 reached 3,420, and in 2023, 2,909. Observed in the period from 2021 to 2025, the year 2024 was also the best year in terms of the number of completed new apartments, but despite this, official data show that the number of unfinished apartments has been growing in BiH for two years in a row.
What to expect
A deeper look at the domestic real estate market in a country where private capital investment opportunities are almost non-existent or minimal, and where citizens’ savings and the inflow of remittances from abroad grow year by year, buying real estate is often a financial asset, not just a place to live. Condos are often purchased to act as asset custodians in uncertain economic times.
What to expect in this construction cycle? Reduction in the prices of newly built properties? Yes, but only if supply exceeds purchasing power.
For now, the prices of new apartments remain at their levels. As he states nadjistan.bain the third quarter of 2025, the prices of new apartments rose to a record level, where the average price of a new apartment in Sarajevo was 4,270 KM/m². This price was as much as 721 KM/per square meter or 20.3% higher compared to the second quarter of 2025, when it was 3,549 KM. Sales in the third quarter of last year were 7.4% lower than in the second quarter.
It should be noted that there are large differences in prices and sales of apartments in individual municipalities. When it comes to the average prices of all apartments – old construction and new construction in 2024, they are the highest in the Municipality of Trnovo – apartments in Bjelašnica (4,040 KM/m²), Stari Grad Sarajevo (4,020 KM/m²), followed by Center Sarajevo (3,900 KM/m²), Novo Sarajevo (3,830 KM/m²), Novi Grad Sarajevo (3,110 KM/m²), Ilidža (3,000 KM/m²) and Vogošća (2,800 KM/m²). Compared to the year 2023, according to nadjistan.ba’s analysis of trends, the highest price growth was recorded in Vogošća (16%), and in Novi Sarajevo and Old Town Sarajevo (15% each), while prices grew the least in Trnovo – apartments in Bjelašnica (10%). On average, when looking at apartment prices in all municipalities together, in 2024 there was a price increase of 13% compared to 2023.
A logical question arises, if the prices are still record high, this means that there is an assumption that there are also buyers who buy real estate at that price, why does construction end with the dynamics shown by the latest official data?
The reasons could be numerous; from price changes that disturb the planned budget, lack of capital, delay in the delivery of materials, lack of labor, to more careful buying and waiting for more favorable square footage prices.
Faster completion also means flooding the market with the number of properties. More ready-made apartments on the market does not necessarily guarantee that the high price will be maintained, on the contrary. The market is logical, higher supply, potentially lower prices, he writes Forbes.
