The launch of a 180-apartment housing project in Skopje unravelled on Sunday when buyers arrived for promised keys and found just 14 homes cleared for occupancy. By Friday, a review of purchase contracts and company accounts suggested that 71 buyers had paid deposits totalling 461 million denars (about €7.5 million), while much of the money had gone to repay loans and an affiliated supplier.
Developer Vardar Nest had marketed the project as a rare route to predictable home costs, offering apartments at fixed prices and advertising a “payment shield” against rising interest rates. Buyers were told they could move in by September. Instead, the courtyard was still fenced off, lifts were not operating and the company could not give most customers a revised handover date.
Keys that never arrived
The opening ceremony on 27 September was cut short after the first residents were told that the apartments shown as ready were awaiting final inspections. Crina Antal, who paid a 20% deposit for a two-bedroom flat, said staff first asked the buyers to wait in the building lobby, then directed them outside as work crews continued inside.
“They sold us certainty, then handed us a payment schedule that changes with the market,” said Antal, a 34-year-old accountant. Her contract lists a starting monthly payment of 29,400 denars (about €478), but an annex allows the lender to recalculate it when its variable rate changes.
The launch was staged like a handover, but there were no keys to hand over.
Crina Antal, buyer
Vardar Nest’s finance director, Labeen Prasad-Sheth, said the company had “never guaranteed that mortgage rates would stay fixed” and blamed the delay on late utility connections and a shortage of inspection staff. The firm says 38 apartments could be ready by December, but has not given a date for the remaining 128.
Deposits diverted to debt
A review of the company’s latest public accounts shows that 278 million denars (about €4.5 million) was transferred to a supplier under common ownership, while 116 million denars (about €1.9 million) went towards interest and loan repayments. The supplier’s filing shows no major construction purchase from Vardar Nest during the same period. The company said the transfers covered “essential project costs”.
Sahra Nilssen, an accountant who advises small property buyers, said the figures did not prove that deposits had been misused but warranted a full reconciliation. “If customer money is paying old borrowing, the developer needs to show exactly which homes that spending built,” she said. The contracts she reviewed also give buyers no clear right to recover the full deposit if the handover date slips.
The project’s advertised fixed prices ranged from 5.9 million to 9.8 million denars (about €96,000 to €159,000). Since the first sales in 2024, a rise in local lending rates has made mortgages more expensive; several buyers said their bank offers now exceeded the estimates shown at the sales office.
Mila Brož, a housing-market analyst, said the launch had turned a familiar construction delay into a test of how developers explain financing risk to buyers. North Macedonia’s consumer-protection office said it had received 23 complaints about the project since Sunday and would examine the sales claims. Vardar Nest says it will publish an updated handover timetable next week, but has not promised refunds.
