A Decision Analytics Approach to Apartment Affordability Analysis Using Power BI

Abstract

In the contemporary real estate market, the ability of citizens to meet their housing needs represents a significant economic and social challenge. This paper focuses on analyzing the purchasing power of the population in Serbia in the context of buying residential property, using modern tools for data processing and visualization. The research relies on data covering average prices of newly built apartments, average net salaries, interest rates, and credit conditions. The aim of this study is to provide an objective insight into the financial affordability of housing for an individual with an average income in Serbia, based on the available data. The Stata software package was used for data preparation and processing, while analysis, metric calculations, and result visualization were carried out in Microsoft Power BI. The analysis reveals pronounced regional differences, with particularly noticeable challenges in urban areas such as Belgrade and Novi Sad. Furthermore, while both average salaries and apartment prices have shown steady growth over the years, the increase in property prices significantly outpaces salary growth, further reducing housing affordability. Ultimately, the results of this study may serve as a basis for designing housing policy measures and for the further application of BI tools in economic analysis.