The cost per square meter in Moscow has increased by a third in a year

The largest increase in the cost per square meter over the year was recorded in Moscow (30.66%), St. Petersburg (16.7%) and Kaluga (7.5%). Alexander Ternyushchenko, Sales Director of DOGMA IC, told Izvestia about this on August 17.

"Demand for housing will increase as the key interest rate decreases, deposit rates decrease, and market mortgage conditions gradually improve," he said.

The cost per square meter is influenced by many factors, including price dynamics for construction work, inflation and servicing of bank loans by developers, explained Elizaveta Rodina, head of Marketing research and analytics at the Glavstroy development company.

"Now everyone is waiting for the key interest rate to decrease by a few more percentage points, this will contribute to an even greater incentive to withdraw funds from deposits. This will stimulate increased demand and reduced supply. As soon as the rate reaches 13-15%, development activity will increase significantly, so in the future the market will face high competition and a tough fight for a buyer," the expert said.

Empty waiting: price growth in the primary housing market exceeded 10%

With a further reduction in the key rate, there is a risk of a jump in the cost of apartments in new buildings, experts say.

The price increase is also influenced by the offer of new sales conditions to consumers, added Mark Zavodovsky, co-founder of BAZA Development.

"We introduce new schemes every month in the form of various promotions, discounts, new types of subsidized mortgage programs with reduced rates, we offer, for example, storage rooms as a gift when buying certain lots, and so on," he said.

The most important condition for the growth of the housing market is the availability of mortgages, said Vladimir Kravchenko, Vice President of Marketing at the Development—South Construction and Investment Corporation. In his opinion, a revival and an increase in demand should be expected after the mortgage rate is lowered to at least 11-12%. Today, family mortgages remain the main driver of the market.

Analysts of the Yandex Real Estate service said on August 6 that in July, prices on the secondary housing market in million-plus cities stagnated amid rising demand. At the same time, the volume of supply in the market of these cities decreased slightly over the month — by 1%. It is noted that the price dynamics close to stagnation (fluctuations from -0.5 to +0.5%) in the secondary market was recorded in seven of the 16 Russian megacities.

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