Who is moving to Serbia? Inside the quiet global relocation wave

According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 34,155 foreign nationals officially immigrated in 2024 — the most recent year with complete data. Behind those numbers is a story almost no Western outlet is covering. At Relocation Serbia, we've worked with clients across this entire spectrum. Here's a clear look at who is actually moving here, why, and what they all seem to be looking for.

The largest cohortRussians and Ukrainians

The single largest wave in recent years has come from Russia and Ukraine. Since 2022, more than 300,000 Russians have entered Serbia, with over 53,000 receiving residence permits and settling permanently. The cohort is heavily concentrated in technology and creative industries — software engineers, game developers, IT consultants, digital entrepreneurs. We've worked with couples in their early twenties opening their first tech companies in Belgrade and entrepreneurs in their sixties launching import businesses and restaurants. The throughline: a stable jurisdiction with low taxes, modern infrastructure, and the ability to operate internationally. Visa-free entry for Russians, a functioning DOO registration process, banking access, and a 15% flat corporate tax have made Serbia one of the most practical jurisdictions in Europe for this group.

Investment & settlementThe Chinese community

Numbering roughly 14,500, the Chinese community is the second-largest foreign-born group in Serbia. Major Chinese investment in infrastructure — roads, tunnels, industrial projects — has driven substantial capital into the country over the past decade. The clients we work with are typically corporate investors in steel, energy, and mining, and senior executives establishing regional headquarters in Belgrade or Novi Sad to access Central Europe. It points to something genuinely distinctive about Serbia: it holds functional trade and political relationships with both Eastern and Western blocs, creating opportunities few other European jurisdictions can match.

Building businessesTurkish entrepreneurs

The Turkish community (around 4,000 by recent counts) is growing quickly, and the profile is overwhelmingly entrepreneurial — specialty bakeries, hospitality, construction, and in one recent case a client developing villa projects in the Fruška Gora region for resale to other relocating foreigners. The community integrates quickly, helped by cultural and culinary overlap with the Balkans and strong existing Turkey–Serbia trade ties.

Looking for a resetAmericans

Our American clients are typically not fleeing a country in crisis. They're professionals, retirees, business owners, and families making deliberate moves driven by cost of living, political uncertainty at home, lifestyle, and in some cases cultural alignment. A few recent profiles:

• A retired California dentist who sold a long-held family home, bought a 173 m² apartment in central Novi Sad, and is planning a full renovation
• An Orthodox Christian family from the Midwest seeking a country where their faith is the cultural majority, with a lower cost of raising children
• A small business owner in his fifties seeking tax efficiency on international income and a slower pace
• A semi-retired couple buying a homestead in a smaller village to grow food, raise animals, and live closer to the land

The unifying thread is people with capital, options, and intentionality — not desperation.

Tax efficiencyBritish buyers

UK clients arrive with a different calculus. Recent changes to the British tax landscape — non-dom status, capital gains, inheritance thresholds — have pushed high-earning professionals and business owners to look for a more predictable long-term tax base. Serbia's architecture is attractive here:

• 10% flat personal income tax on employment income (with a supplementary annual tax of a further 10–15% on income above roughly 3–6× the average annual salary, applied to very high earners)
• 15% flat corporate income tax — among the lowest in Europe
• 15% capital gains tax, with a full exemption on assets held by an individual for more than 10 continuous years
• No withholding tax on dividends paid between Serbian-resident companies
• Pension income generally not subject to Serbian personal income tax (though your home country may still tax it under the relevant treaty)

Quality of lifeCanadians

Canadians are arriving in growing numbers, driven by housing unaffordability in major cities, a higher overall tax burden than Serbia, and a sense that the cost-of-living trajectory is unsustainable. A typical profile: a professional or business owner in their forties or fifties, often with school-aged children, wanting a country where home ownership is realistic on a middle-class income. Serbia's housing remains far more affordable than Canadian urban markets — the median apartment sells for around €92,000, against Toronto and Vancouver prices that have put ownership out of reach for entire generations.

Crossing hemispheresAustralians

Australians are quietly one of the fastest-growing cohorts in 2026, for reasons similar to the British and Canadian patterns: tax efficiency, cost of living, lifestyle, a slower pace. For Australian retirees especially, the combination of favourable treatment of pension income, a substantially lower cost of living, and a temperate Central European climate makes Serbia a serious contender against the traditional Spanish, Portuguese, and Maltese retirement destinations.

Coming homeThe returning diaspora

One of the most meaningful patterns we see is Serbs returning home — more often the children and grandchildren of Serbs returning to a country their parents left decades ago. Serbia offers citizenship by descent for those with Serbian or former-Yugoslav ancestry, often extending to grandparents and in some cases great-grandparents — a direct path to citizenship without going through the temporary-residence track. These clients move into inherited family homes, build on inherited village land, or buy modern apartments in Belgrade and Novi Sad and reconnect with their heritage. It's a uniquely Serbian relocation story, and one we help structure regularly.

The surprisesUnexpected origins

The most surprising part of this work is how often we hear from countries we didn't expect. Mexico is one example — with security concerns in certain regions, we've worked with Mexican families splitting the year between Serbia and Mexico, using the 183-day Serbian tax-residency threshold to establish a legal Serbian base. Similar profiles arrive from South Africa, Brazil, the Gulf states, and parts of Southeast Asia. The pattern is consistent: people with the resources to choose where they live are increasingly choosing Serbia, for reasons that surprise even the Serbs.

What all these movers have in common

Despite radically different starting points, they share a set of overlapping motivations.

What this list does not include is a perfect country. Serbia has real frictions: bureaucracy moves slowly, processes require local knowledge, language barriers exist outside major cities, and the system rewards patience and good representation. None of that surprises our clients. It's exactly why they hire us.

How Relocation Serbia helps

Our clients aren't researching from a position of desperation. They've evaluated their options and want to make this move correctly the first time. Our services cover the full relocation arc:

• Citizenship eligibility assessment — including descent for diaspora clients and naturalization planning for first-generation movers
• Temporary & permanent residence permits — full application support, documentation, and follow-through with Serbian authorities
• Business setup — DOO formation, banking, accounting, and ongoing tax compliance
• Real estate sourcing & purchase — English-speaking representation with verification of legal status, contracts, and notarization
• Property tax planning — including VAT (PDV) refund eligibility analysis where applicable
• Renovation, design & architecture — bringing a new property up to modern standard
• Ongoing tax & accounting support — for individuals, families, and businesses

We're a single point of accountability covering what would otherwise be a fragmented relationship with separate immigration lawyers, agents, accountants, translators, and contractors. You move once, set up once, and the foundation is solid for the long term.

Frequently asked questions

The underlying story

The honest summary of who is moving to Serbia is this: it's not one type of person. It's people from forty-plus countries, across every age bracket and cultural background, all arriving at the same conclusion from different starting points — that the world has changed enough that the question is no longer should I consider relocating, but where. For a growing number who run the analysis seriously, Serbia is what comes out the other end.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, immigration, or tax advice. Individual circumstances vary, and relocation decisions should be discussed with qualified professionals before any commitment is made.