Serbian Residency by real estate purchase for a Russian family of three – Case study

Serbian Residency by real estate purchase for a Russian family of three.

We present to you  one of the most challenging  and interesting cases we have encountered in our practice. Our clients, a family of three from Russia, came to us with a desire to obtain a residence permit in Serbia, namely to buy a property in Zlatibor.  Our service included: assistance in finding an appropriate property, legal due diligence, assistance in the process of purchasing real estate, legal advice in all legal matters, dealing with banks and state and tax authorities, assistance in preparing and submitting documents to obtain a residence permit.

After a successfully completed service, we have done interviews with our clients where they talk about the whole process, our role in the same process and cooperation with our team.

Find below an interview with Pavel Arsenyev, CEO of „Pareto-Print“, Russia’s largest book printing house, and his wife, Tatiana Galkova, PhD in History and corporate communications consultant.

How did you decide to move to Serbia?

In a sense, it was a lucky coincedence. We both love mountains, and during the coronavirus epidemic, all of our favorite places in the mountains in Europe were out of reach for us. An acquaintance of ours went to the Kopaonik ski resort in Serbia and came back absolutely thrilled. So then we decided to visit Serbia, and after reading the information on the internet, we chose Zlatibor. When we came to Serbia, we were enchanted by the beauty of nature, the energy of development that can be felt everywhere and the friendliness of people. We fell in love with Serbia and when we travelled back again in May we decided that this is the country where we would like to live in our retirement years.

What do you think are the main advantages of Serbia?

For us it is the nature, the climate, the people and the dynamic development of the country, and also the visa-free entry for Russian citizens, which means for us that our children and friends can visit us easily.

Why did you choose our team? How was it different from the other candidates?

When we decided to start the relocation process, the first thing we did was to look for partners – lawyers who could help us with that. We met with quite a few different agencies, but after meeting with your team, we realized that we wanted to work with you. We are both very experienced in working with different partners and have our own method of determining who we want to work with. When choosing a partner in a foreign country, it’s not only their professionalism that matters, but also how much you trust them. We saw many professional lawyers who knew the law well, but only your team demonstrated the breadth of their competence, their willingness to help solve the various problems that may emerge while integratiing in a new country, emotional involvement and a great desire to implement this project. We did not look specifically for Russian speaking consultants, because we do not have problems with foreign languages, but the fact that the entire team working with us speaks excellent Russian was also a big plus. That is why we chose you and are very pleased with that.

What can you say about the real estate market in Serbia?

The most exciting part for us was definitely the home buying process because it is a very serious business. But your team accompanied us from the moment we were looking for a property to the moment we bought it, every step of the way. And thanks to this support, we were able to find the house of our dreams and in early September (and we started working with you in early July) to buy it.

Of course we are not experts on the real estate market, but in our opinion this market is very diverse and you can find housing for every taste and budget. Everywhere in Serbia, there is an active construction of new housing. Sometimes it seems that Serbia is now generally a big construction site. We went through a small number of options and quickly found what we wanted. Maybe we were lucky.

How difficult was the process of obtaining a residence permit? What was the most difficult and difficult moment in the process of obtaining it?

And the process of obtaining a residence permit was not difficult at all, because we were given comprehensive support at every stage. And most importantly, we did not just formalize all the steps, we always felt the warmth, support and a great sense of responsibility from your team. We developed a friendly personal relationship between us. We learned a lot about Serbia, its traditions and culture.

And we would certainly recommend your team to those who want to move to Serbia.

It is also important for us that our cooperation is not over when we get our residence permit, and we always know who to contact for any questions and who will always help us.