The Impact of Real Estate Market in the Albanian Economy

The real estate market has an important impact on social and economic development of a country, and it involves many aspects which increase the complexity of the impact analysis and often have opposite directions. This can be supported by the fact that real estate is one of the most important items in public spending3, but also in investment expenses in general (this is especially typical for Albania). These expenses are mainly related to infrastructure and accommodation of homeless people by the National Housing Entity. Researchers have studied the relation between the price of real estates with the GDP of a country, concluding that real estate prices and the government policies related to them, do impact the GDP growth, and movements in residential prices can be used to forecast GDP growth. On the other hand, when purchasing a home, individuals use all their savings, or take loans, which constantly cause the reduction of consumption and saving possibilities in order to afford the installments and other loan expenses. So, from this point of view, this investment may have an adverse effect, even on GDP. But, the question we raise in this study is: what impact has the real estate market in Albanian economy? We begin the study by emphasizing the importance of the real estate market, and then we identify key developments related to this market’s financing, price developments and the construction activity, as an important part of the market itself. The study is concluded with a regression analysis on the role the real estate market plays in the Albanian economy