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- Construction in a row: new comfort-class buildings have almost disappeared from Moscow
Construction in a row: new comfort-class buildings have almost disappeared from Moscow
During the year, the share of housing supply in the capital's new comfort-class buildings decreased by 40%, analysts told Izvestia. This segment has been displaced by the business class, which is more profitable for developers. And there are less than 7 thousand such apartments on the market right now. In the regions, the volume of comfort-class housing can reach 75%. About what the Moscow market will be like and what will happen to the housing of the mass segment — in the material of Izvestia.
Where has the comfort class disappeared to
In Moscow, the supply of comfort-class housing decreased by 40% over the year, market participants and developers reported. The share of this segment in the total market volume is now only 20%, that is, 6.6 thousand lots, analysts of the residential area of the consulting company Core.XP calculated for Izvestia.
"Such a significant reduction in the supply of comfort class within the MKAD is due to urban planning policy," said Ekaterina Lomteva, director of Residential real estate at the company. — Stricter requirements for the architectural appearance of residential complexes significantly affect the growth of construction costs, which is why developers are shifting their interest to business-class projects due to their higher margins.
Analysts estimate the maximum supply volume in business class at 21.3 thousand lots, which is 64% of the total supply in Moscow. Another 13% and 3% are premium and deluxe classes.
Over the past year, the number of comfort-class apartments and apartments on display has halved and almost equaled the supply of premium new buildings, Natalia Shatalina, CEO of the RedCat aggregator of new buildings, confirmed.
—The affordable housing segment was the leader in terms of supply reduction dynamics, so since September 2024, the premium segment has lost 1.6% of supply, business class - 6.2%, and comfort class - 50%," she said.
Indeed, the new Moscow requirements involve complex architectural solutions, high-rise buildings, and non-standard facade plastics, said Evgenia Styazhkina, Director of the Product Strategy Department at Dogma Group.
"Such projects are initially positioned as a business class, and engineering systems, the quality of public spaces, and infrastructure should correspond to it," she said.
At the same time, there remains significant pent-up demand in the comfort class market caused by high mortgage rates, added Ivan Vinogradov, CEO of Ikon Development.
"Buyers are still waiting to purchase housing in anticipation of lower rates," he said. — Developers, in turn, are in no hurry to launch new projects due to the increased cost of lending. High rates increase the financial burden on developers, and the launch of new projects becomes economically unprofitable in the current market realities.
According to Sergey Ogandzhanyan, Managing director of the Twiga Russia communications company, the main reason for this situation is the economics of projects. The cost has increased, and the business class is becoming more profitable for developers.
"The second reason is mortgages: massive programs are being curtailed, and business class buyers are more likely to buy without subsidies," he added. — Plus, there is a rebranding process — what used to be called "upper comfort" is now often sold as "business".
What kind of housing is popular in Russia
But the markets should be divided into Russia as a whole and Moscow, said Evgeny Shavnev, CEO of Flip LLC, an investment company in the real estate market.
— For example, in Russia, the share of comfort class on sale varies between 50-60%. Economy accounts for 20%. Everything else is already business class," he explained. — In Moscow, the share of business housing already exceeds 50%.
In the Moscow Region, for example, the comfort class not only retains its position, but also remains a key driver of the market, said Alexey Artoshin, Commercial Director of Glavstroy Regions. According to the results of the third quarter of 2025, the total supply volume in the standard, comfort and business class segments decreased by about 5%, but increased by 12% year-on-year. At the same time, 75% of the new offer is in the comfort class.
—Comfort remains the main segment in the Moscow region, especially in large locations with developed infrastructure and transport accessibility," he said. — In Moscow, it is really shifting to a higher level. His classic understanding of "functional, affordable, family housing" goes into "sleeping bags" and the suburbs.
Initially, the transition of developers to business class construction was a strategy to highlight a competitive market and attract a new audience, said Vladimir Kolesnikov, Deputy Commercial Director of A101 Group.
— However, over time, the key reason was the reduced economic efficiency of the construction of a comfort class, - he said. — To justify the higher cost of sales, you need to create a product that meets the customer's requirements and is not inferior to competitors. And this is 450-500 thousand per square meter.
According to him, it has become partly unprofitable to build facilities below the business class, so developers are gradually moving away from the classical typology of housing classes, preferring to mix the characteristics of different segments in one project.
The business class is now more resistant to economic changes - buyers are more focused not on mortgages, but on installments, says VSN Group CEO Yana Glazunova.
— In addition, the demands of buyers are also growing: more and more people want a better living environment, — she noted. — The business is aimed at wealthy buyers, business people, those who value prestige and a high level of service.
Will the comfort class disappear
In the next year and a half, the structure of new buildings is unlikely to change much: the business class will continue to grow, the comfort segment will gradually decrease, Sergey Ohanjanyan believes.
— An increase in the share of comfort class is possible due to macroeconomic changes, which will cause an increase in consumer demand, for example, if the rate drops by 3-4 percentage points and massive subsidies return, - the expert believes. — So far, developers are betting on expensive but liquid projects and reducing the launch of massive ones.
However, according to Natalia Shatalina from RedCat, the comfort class will not disappear completely, there is still demand for it, but it will become less in the old borders of the capital.
— The main volume will continue to migrate to New Moscow and partly to the cities of the near Moscow region, — she said.
Despite the current trend and the low activity of developers, more construction will be carried out in Moscow in the next one and a half to two years, for example, as part of the Renovation Fund, Vladimir Kolesnikov believes. And according to this program, they are building a comfort class.
But in the traditional, "budget" sense, the comfort class in the capital is a thing of the past, Evgenia Styazhkina from Dogma Group is sure. In the near future, there will be no return to simple standard projects, she believes.
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