Walking to the central square of Skenderbei if you lift your gaze you will see at least one tall crane at every point of the horizon. The city looks like a vast construction site with pharaoh buildings already constructed or designed for the near future.
Today Tirana has been constructed or undergoing projects and procedures for the construction of over 100 buildings, ranging from 47 to 300 meters! Real estate prices in the capital of Albania are touching in the most expensive areas of Athens and Thessaloniki, in a country with the lowest minimum wage in Europe, which is just over 400 euros. At the same time, a small town is lost each year, as about 15,000 people, mostly young, leave the country looking for work abroad, and over 50,000 homes remain empty. The answer to “how and for … who all these building complexes are built” cannot be given in terms of rational and real economy.
“Something happens … magical”
Pamella, 32, is a manager of a real estate agency that operates near the center of Tirana and when we ask her to explain the real estate market she smiles in meaning. “Probably here in Albania everything is done in a … magical way! Only in terms of magic can it be explained why the houses and the real estate market are so expensive. I can’t say anything else … What I can tell you for sure is that I will never get a home in my life, “says the 32 -year -old, who is paid 600 euros a month. According to Albanian Bank data, in the second half of 2024, real estate prices in the neighboring country increased by 44.5% compared to 2023, mainly due to high prices recorded in Tirana, where the increase reached 56%.
The increase in real estate prices in Tirana and tourist areas in the last five years is up to 58% and according to analysts in Albania could be a possible indicator of a financial bubble. In the exact areas of Tirana a newly built apartment can exceed even 5,000 euros/sqm. According to forecasts, in 2025 real estate prices will increase by up to 27% compared to last year.
“Buy,” Eddie Rama urges
In one of his pre -election tours, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that after Albania’s integration into the European Union, “the value of real estate in the country will be doubled immediately.” “As we enter the European Union, all real estate prices will be doubled immediately, as the history of all the countries that have joined us have shown,” he said during a meeting with businessmen in Saints Saranda.
William is 29 years old and works as a waiter in one of the restaurants in the center of Tirana. As he says, the “investors” in the real estate market are “compatriots of the Diaspora who have money under their … mattress, large construction companies, subcontractors in the building industry, offering the work, not for a cash price but with a percentage of newly owned buildings, For money laundering. “
“Tax authorities make a little bit of a blind eye on the money invested in real estate, because it is perhaps the most important industry of the economy. The times when our parents migrated and after a few years of work they could buy a home in Tirana are over. If you live and work in a legitimate way here, not only can you not get home, but you can’t even survive. Many receive financial aid from their relatives who live abroad to get them out, “says the 29 -year -old.
The Albanian mafia
A logical explanation for the… irrational investment in the Albanian real estate market is given by the State Department report on the global drug trafficking network and the money laundering.
According to international law enforcement authorities, Albanian organized criminal groups are demonstrating more and more advanced methods of committing crimes, communication and money laundering. They are active throughout the Balkan region, as well as in the European Union (EU), the United States, Canada, South America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
According to Americans, Albanian criminal networks have direct access to cocaine production in South America and use the Albanian economy, in particular the construction sector, to rinse revenue and contribute to corruption. It is noteworthy that a few years ago a series of murders on the streets of Ecuador led the law enforcement authorities to Tirana for their delineation. Albanian criminal groups are now supplied with … credit from South America’s networks acting as brokers as they have disappeared from the streets of… retail trafficking and are now at the top of the international criminal pyramid.
‘4.2 billion euros black money’
According to Angelos Syrigos, a New Democracy MP, Professor of International Law at Panteion University who was in the neighboring country as an election observer, according to banks, only 30% of the money invested in real estate passes through the banking system. “70% are estimated to be black money. In Greek proportions, to understand it, it is estimated that it is about 4.2 billion euros from black money, which you do not know its origin. When I say black money I don’t mean black money from tax evasion. Black money from criminal actions. The corresponding thing for us would be as if 40 billion euros of black money were entering our economy every year, “said Syrigos.
In one of the election centers in Tirana on the election day, Vima met 36 -year -old Doris, a police officer in a special group of cross -border checks. As he typically said, only his own unit has seized 3.5 million euros in the last six months, money coming from criminal activities. “There are steps. We now have good cooperation with European services but there is a lot of work to do yet, ”the 36 -year -old said.
According to the latest State Department report, most of the money laundering in Albania is linked to drug and people trade, public contract fraud, tax evasion and smuggling.
“The Albanian economy, which is largely based on cash, weak border controls and the inadequate imposition of customs rules facilitate the operation of a black market for smuggled goods. Impartments and investments from abroad sometimes obscure the origin of capital. Criminals rinse their revenue through real estate purchases, construction projects, virtual assets and business activity, “the report notes.
The law enforcement authorities have another “headache” to face as a law passed in March 2024, Albania re -legalized, after the 2018 ban, sports bets only in an online environment. The new law raises concerns that inadequate supervision may allow organized crime to penetrate this activity…
