The expert warned about the risks of waiting for lower housing prices

Home buyers are increasingly postponing the decision to purchase an apartment, hoping for lower mortgage rates or prices. However, this strategy often leads to the opposite result: real estate prices rise faster than credit conditions improve. Anton Viner, co-founder and co-owner of the Rodina Group, told Izvestia about this on June 30.

According to his estimates, about 40-50% of families considering buying an apartment in a new building postpone the deal for a period of several months to several years. Most often, buyers hope for more favorable mortgage conditions, lower housing costs, or seek to accumulate a larger down payment. Additional reasons are psychological unwillingness to make a large purchase and the expectation of a more favorable market situation.

"At the same time, the behavior of buyers has changed in recent years. Many who had previously postponed the purchase were subsequently faced with the fact that the cost of the apartments they were interested in increased by hundreds of thousands or even millions of rubles. As a result, some customers today prefer to fix the price at the early stages of construction, hoping to use refinancing in the future with lower mortgage rates," the expert said.

According to him, expectations of lower prices are not always justified. Buyers often mistake marketing campaigns, the launch of sales of new buildings or special offers for individual apartments for cheaper prices. A significant reduction in the cost of new buildings, as a rule, occurs only during periods of serious economic crises.

According to Wiener, with an average price increase in the primary market of 1-1.5% per month, waiting for a purchase within six months can increase family expenses by 500-900 thousand rubles. The potential additional costs reach 1.2–2 million rubles per year, and 3-4.5 million rubles in two years.

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What is the reason and in which regions the decline was recorded?

The rising cost of housing also affects the terms of a future mortgage. If the price of the apartment increases during the waiting period, the loan amount increases, and with it the monthly payment and the total overpayment to the bank for the entire loan term.

The expert noted that even with a gradual reduction in the key interest rate, mortgages do not immediately become cheaper. During the waiting period, the value of real estate can grow so much that the benefits of a lower interest rate will be completely offset by the rise in price of the apartment itself. A similar situation exists when families rely on income growth: the rate of increase in wages is often lower than the rate of increase in housing prices.

However, waiting is not always a wrong strategy. According to Wiener, postponing the purchase may be justified in the absence of a financial safety cushion, insufficient down payment, unstable income, or the likelihood of moving in the coming years. In such cases, it is important to evaluate not only the potential benefits of waiting, but also its cost.

Before applying for a mortgage, the expert recommends analyzing the share of the future payment in the family budget, the amount of the initial payment, the availability of financial reserves, and comparing the cost of renting a home with the expected monthly loan payment.

"The main risk for most families is not short-term market fluctuations, but endless waiting for the perfect moment to buy. In the end, the winner is the one who makes the decision based on their own financial capabilities and the real market situation, rather than trying to guess the next market cycle," Wiener concluded.

Anastasia Kudryavtseva, Adviser to the Chairman of the Board of JSC National Savings Bank, told Izvestia on March 27 that the decline in consumer confidence is due to the accumulated effect of uncertainty and pressure on real incomes, which is gradually changing the behavior of the population and restraining demand for large purchases. At the same time, the basic consumption remains, but it is the optional, "additional" expenses that begin to decrease in the first place. For the economy, this means uneven pressure on industries.