Families from the interior can’t afford to move to Skopje – you have to sell a house in the countryside to afford a studio in the capital, said Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski in an interview. Macedonia saw a dramatic spike in real-estate prices in the past several years, especially in Skopje, where prices can approach 3,000 EUR per square meter.

This pressure is focused on Centar and Karpos. We see people sell two level houses for 50,000 EUR and can’t buy a studio. And their next move then is to leave the country. There is no young married couple that can afford an apartment for 3,000 EUR per square meter. Everything is concentrated in Skopje, prices are going sky high, and the countryside is going bankrupt, said Nikoloski who is also Transportation Minister and just had a new law for municipal construction plans go through Parliament.

His next proposal is to temporarily stop new residential construction in Centar and Karpos, given the rampant development there that is done with disregard of good urbanisation practices.