Real Estate News
By Vladimir Kozlov
City Hall plans to move offices from the city centre
Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has called for the building of office centres on the city’s outskirts and residential buildings closer to its centre, Novye Izvestiya reported. That move is meant to improve the traffic situation in the city as the lion’s share of rush hour traffic is currently from the outskirts to the center in the morning and in the opposite direction at night. Mikhail Blinkin, head of the Transport and Road Economy Research Institute, told Novye Izvestiya that currently 40 per cent of all jobs in Moscow are located within 4 kilometers of the Kremlin. However, he added that moving offices to the outskirts would be a challenging task, as public transportation in the city’s outskirts is poor, and getting to a work-place located outside the center could be difficult.
A provincial developer steps in Well House
Universalnaya Kompaniya, based in the south Russian city of Pyatigorsk, has joined the residential project Well House at Dubrovka, initially developed by Mirax Group, and is ready to invest $100 million, Kommersant reported. The construction of 25,000 sq. meter Well House, located near Dubrovka and Avtozavondskaya Metro stations and consisting of two 18- 29 store-buildings, was suspended in 2009. The project’s total value is reportedly $355 million, and the $100 million which the new investor says it will pump into it, is just enough to complete the project. However, individual investors in the project are skeptical. “We think that this is just a front company that stepped in not for the purpose of completing the object but to act as a bumper between the government and us,” Vladimir Zhossan, head of the initiative group of Well House individual investors, told Kommersant.
Moscow lags behind in residential construction per person
Although the Russian capital is predictably the leader among all of the country’s cities in the number of residential sq. meters built every year, the construction per person figure is much less rosy for Moscow. Based on analysis by the Gde Etot Dom real estate analytical centre, Moscow is near the bottom of the list of the Russian cities compiled in terms of the volume of residential construction per person per year. Surprisingly, Krasnodar, Tyumen and Stavropol top the list. “[Moscow] is a unique case, as high demand for residential property doesn’t lead to an adequate increase in supply, but only triggers further price hikes,” reads the centre’s report.
Residential property prices up, demand down
November saw a decline in demand for residential property in the Moscow market, according to an analytical report by MIAN realtor. Meanwhile, according to the report, prices for all kinds of newlybuilt property, except economy class, went up during the period in question. The highest price increase was reported in the elite property segment, by 1.5 per cent to 516,300 roubles ($16,655) per square meter. Business class property became more expensive by one per cent, to 172,000 roubles ($5,550) per square meter, and prices for economy class property stayed at the October level.
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