By the end of 2024, the number of comfort-class housing projects in the territory of old Moscow stopped growing, market participants said. In addition, there are fewer such apartments for sale, although other segments of the real estate market are growing. This is due to the lack of available sites for the construction of new projects and an increase in the cost of facilities — as a result, developers are reorienting to a more expensive segment. The trend is also related to the tightening of the city's requirements for the architecture of residential complexes, experts say. Whether new comfort-class buildings will leave the capital's market is in the Izvestia article.
Why don't they build a comfort class?
In 2024, the volume of home sales in new comfort-class buildings within the borders of old Moscow fell by 12%, market participants told Izvestia. This is the only segment that has shown negative dynamics.
Comfort class is a real estate complex with a complete infrastructure, which must include preschool and school educational institutions, as well as a polyclinic. According to construction standards, an area with playgrounds for children, a green area, and two- to three-level street lighting is required next to residential buildings.
The decrease in volume in this segment is due to the lack of available sites for the construction of such projects, said Anna Sokolova, Commercial Director of OM Development.
"As well as with the increase in the cost of facilities and the increased costs of their implementation," she added. Therefore, there is a reorientation of developers to a more expensive segment.
Other housing classes have grown: business and premium — by 8%, deluxe — by 25%.
A new balance of the real estate market is being formed: if at the beginning of 2023 the share of comfort class in sales was 66-68%, then in 2025 it occupies only 44%. At the same time, the share of the business class has almost reached 50%, which is 9% more than in 2023, MR. Analytics experts explained.
"This confirms the trend towards the gradual withdrawal of comfort class in the capital's market in recent years," the analysts noted. — There are several prerequisites for this phenomenon. First of all, the city's stricter requirements for the architecture of residential projects. This leads to an increase in the cost of construction and motivates developers to enter the market with residential complexes of a higher segment, complementing them with the necessary attributes.
In mid-December 2024, 45.1 thousand objects with a total area of 2.66 million square meters were on sale in the primary market in the old borders of Moscow, according to Urban Grade research data: 34.5% of them accounted for comfort—class new buildings, 44.1% for business, 15.9% for premium, and 5.5% for luxury real estate.
— At the same time, over the year, the supply of new comfort-class buildings increased by only 1%, in business class - by 9.3%, in premium class — by 40.8%, - added Anna Sokolova.
Demand for comfort-class housing in old Moscow became more moderate in the second half of 2024 due to the cooling of mortgage programs by the Central Bank, Anna Boim, Commercial Director of A101 Group, confirmed.
— This does not mean that this segment is leaving the market. On the contrary, with the advent of targeted mortgage programs, which are discussed every day, interest in it will only increase," she said. — But gradually developers are coming to a different model of creating residential projects.
The reduction in the supply of new comfort-class buildings, especially within old Moscow, is due to the fact that land plots could have been purchased by developers long ago at prices that are considered profitable today, says Evgenia Alekseeva, sales director of the federal developer Novy Gorod.
—With similar construction costs to business class, comfort class projects bring lower margins, which makes them less attractive to developers," the expert emphasized.
Will new low-cost buildings leave the market
On average, a similar picture has developed in Russia: in large cities, demand for comfort class has decreased by 15-20%, while business class and premium class have increased by an average of 10%, Artur Kuleshov, director of analytics at MR Group, told Izvestia.
But in some regions, for example in the Tver region, economy, comfort and comfort+ class facilities continue to be in the greatest demand, Evgenia Alekseeva noted.
"This is due to the limitation on the amount of family mortgages to 6 million rubles, which remains the main driver of the market in the regions," she said.
Alexey Ivanov, Deputy Director of Marketing at developer SK10, added that in the Rostov region, the segments of standard and comfort-class housing are also showing significant growth.
— At the same time, the segments of business and luxury housing show a more modest increase, - the expert explained.
The decline in sales in the comfort class segment in 2024 is largely due to restrictions on the family mortgage program, Evgenia Alekseeva noted. There is practically no such dependence in the business and premium class market, since a significant proportion of buyers here are those who use installments or pay for housing in full.
However, there is still a problem in Russia with the definition of housing classes, there are no strict criteria, and therefore they are often purely nominal, added Sergey Zaitsev, sales director of the federal company "Floors".
"It has long been a problem to build comfort—class housing within the borders of old Moscow due to the high cost of land plots, since the profitability of such projects is unlikely to meet the financial model of developers," he believes. — The launch of business class and luxury real estate projects dominates there, it is easier to justify the expensive cost of a land plot due to the higher price per square meter.
The capital's trend to reduce the share of comfort-class housing construction in the central parts of megacities is justified by the shortage and cost of land plots. We are mainly talking about dotted buildings, including on the site of industrial zones or old buildings.
In the central parts of cities, it is increasingly difficult for comfort-class residential complexes under construction to compete with ready-made apartments on the secondary market, Denis Zhalnin, general director of the federal development company People, added.
— Developers, in order to sell comfort class in the city center, need to be prepared to make high discounts and reduce the profitability of construction, which is extremely problematic in the context of current inflation, rising prices for building materials and the cost of land, - he believes. — In the central parts of cities, a few years ago, the share of economy-class apartments began to decrease, followed by comfort.
The share of new comfort-class buildings will gradually decrease. However, the segment will not completely leave the market — there will always be offers in this niche for different customer needs, added Artur Kuleshov.
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