The payback period for rental apartments in Russia has increased sharply by 1.8 times

Since 2020, the average payback period for one-room apartments has increased from 155 to 266 months, the federal company "Floors" said on March 29.

"The average cost of a studio apartment of 35 sq. m. The m in the secondary housing market in Russia at the beginning of 2020 was 2.54 million rubles, and the average rental price for similar housing was 16.96 thousand rubles. In six years, the cost of an apartment of the same size has increased to 8.4 million rubles, and the rental rate has reached 31.6 thousand rubles. Thus, the price of an apartment has increased 3.3 times, while the rental income has only increased 1.9 times," explained Alexander Ivanov, a leading analyst at the federal company Floors.

Among Russian cities with millions of residents, the payback period for one-room apartments for rent increased most significantly compared to 2020 in Voronezh from 115 to 312 months, in Nizhny Novgorod from 189 to 343 months, in Kazan from 175 to 322 months, in St. Petersburg from 178 to 320 months and in Volgograd from 154 up to 287 months. Moscow took the 8th place in this rating, the payback period in the capital increased from 187 to 310 months.

Chelyabinsk (241 months), Novosibirsk (242 months) and Yekaterinburg (245 months) became the leaders in terms of payback period for one-room apartments purchased on the secondary market in 2026 and rented out. Studio apartments will take the longest to pay off by renting in Nizhny Novgorod (343 months), Kazan (322 months), St. Petersburg (320 months), Voronezh (312 months) and Moscow (310 months).

"In cities with high payback periods for rented apartments, it is important to choose areas with a minimum price per square meter, but with a high rental rate and stable demand, as well as predict the price of future sales of such facilities, the dynamics of its growth should at least cover the real inflation rate for this period. In cities with a high average payback period, the proportion of facilities with good returns is lower, but they are there," concluded Ivanov.

Apartment spread: the price of new buildings has increased since the beginning of the year in all major cities

Most of all, the "square" rose in price in Moscow, Kazan, Perm, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

Analysts of the Yandex Rent service reported on March 11 that in February, in 14 of the 16 million-plus cities, the median long-term rental rate decreased or stagnated. The most noticeable reduction in the median long-term rental rate compared to the results of January 2026 occurred in Volgograd (-4.8%, 25 thousand rubles), Nizhny Novgorod (-3.8%, 35 thousand rubles), Samara (-3.3%, 30 thousand rubles), Rostov-on-Don (-2.9%, 30 thousand rublesUfa (-2.7%, 27 thousand rubles) and St. Petersburg (-2.3%, 44 thousand rubles). A less pronounced decrease in rental prices was recorded in Chelyabinsk (-1.6%, 25 thousand rubles), Yekaterinburg (-1.3%, 35 thousand rubles) and Krasnoyarsk (-1.2%, 28 thousand rubles).

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