Belgrade Heating Price Jumps to 2,021.68 Dinars per m2

The price of heating per square meter in Belgrade is set to rise to 2,021.68 dinars a year with VAT from October 1, under a new price list proposal that public utility Belgrade Power Plants (JKP Beogradske elektrane) has sent to the City Secretariat for Energy. The increase amounts to 9.44% over the current price, which would climb from 1,679.35 to 1,837.89 dinars per square meter without VAT, and the price list still needs the City of Belgrade’s approval as the company’s founder.

The Supervisory Board of Belgrade Power Plants adopted the decision to change the price list on August 26, 2026, at its fourth extraordinary session, held by phone, and it was signed by board chairman Milan Djurovic. The company’s request reached the Secretariat a day earlier, on August 25. Before the new price list can take effect, it first needs the City’s approval and has to be published in the Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade. Under the decision, it would apply from October 1, two weeks before the heating season begins on October 15.

What Exactly Is Changing in the Price List

The proposal changes all four items on the heating bill:

• charging per square meter for apartments rises from 1,679.35 to 1,837.89 dinars a year without VAT, or 9.44%, reaching 2,021.68 dinars with VAT
• charging per consumption falls from 8.21 to 7.76 dinars per kWh without VAT, or 5.57%, to 8.54 dinars with VAT
• the fixed charge for connected power rises from 6,350.58 to 7,494.86 dinars per kW a year without VAT, or 18.02%, to 8,244.35 dinars with VAT
• hot water consumption goes up 10% for all users, to 277.07 dinars per cubic meter with VAT

The price per square meter is calculated on the basis of average consumption of 136 kWh per square meter a year. For business premises, the charge per installed power rises from 17,287.80 to 18,931.39 dinars per kW a year, or 9.51%, while the energy price per kWh falls from 10.02 to 9.46 dinars, also down 5.57%.

For a 60 square meter apartment billed by heated floor area, the total with VAT would rise from about 110,837 to about 121,301 dinars a year under the new price list, or roughly 870 dinars more a month. Belgrade Power Plants last raised heating prices on October 1, 2025.

Why Now?

While the price list awaits the City’s approval, the organization Beograd u pokretu (Belgrade in Motion) said today, September 24, that the announced increase shows the city’s finances have been pushed to the edge. According to the organization’s statement, the state transferred almost 1 billion dinars to Belgrade a few days ago because of threatened current liquidity, while the city’s utility companies owe suppliers as much as 30 billion dinars.

The organization’s executive director, Nikola Radin, said:

Years of poor management, pointless and overpriced projects, non-transparent spending of public money and numerous corruption suspicions have pushed the city’s finances to the brink.

Radin added that heating is not the only item getting more expensive and that he expects further increases in utility prices, along with an estimate of how much more the City will need to borrow:

Our estimate is that the City will have to take on at least an additional 10 billion dinars in loans from commercial banks just to function normally and settle its obligations. The numbers show that the current financing model is unsustainable and that Belgrade cannot keep operating this way.

Responsibility for the rising bills, according to Radin, lies with the city authorities:

Belgrade is not a poor city, poor management has driven it to financial collapse, and in the end, Sapic’s (Mayor Aleksandar Sapic’s) bill always lands on the people of Belgrade.

For now, Belgrade Power Plants’ price list remains a proposal until the City’s approval arrives and the decision is published in the Official Gazette. Until then, October bills stay at the old rate.