Amid declining demand, developers are returning to low-cost housing classes

Over the past year, the share of new business class, premium and elite segment buildings in the volume of current construction has grown to 21%, the highest in the history of the Russian real estate market. At the same time, the structure of new project launches demonstrates the opposite trend — developers are reducing the commissioning of residential complexes with high-quality characteristics in favor of massive and more affordable new buildings of economy and comfort classes. Analysts of the Movement told Izvestia about this on June 18.<url>", having studied the data of the Unified Housing Construction Information System (UISWS).

According to experts, by the end of the first half of 2026, the structure of current housing construction in Russia has become more upscale. A year ago, the business and elite segments accounted for 19% of the area under construction, now it is 21%. This is the highest figure in history. This trend is most pronounced in the markets of Russian cities with millions of megacities.

"In many ways, this restructuring of the current proposal is explained by the class structure of new project launches in previous years. In 2024 and 2025, the share of high-quality residential complexes in launches reached a record 18%. They were the ones who gradually filled the construction site and formed a more expensive structure of the current supply — the delayed effect of high development activity in expensive classes in the past years," said the head of the analytical center "Movement.<url>" by Yan Gravshin.

In addition, new launches show a different trend. In the first half of 2026. The share of high-quality housing in the structure of new projects in Russia as a whole decreased to 14% against 18% a year earlier. The share of the mass segment, respectively, increased from 82% to 86%. In other words, developers are shifting their focus towards a more mainstream product.

The real estate market also simultaneously lives in two time layers. The current construction structure reflects the consequences of the record share of business, premium and elite class projects in the launches of 2024-2025. But the new launches in 2026 show a turn towards the mass segment. This means that in the medium term, the structure of the offer may begin to shift again towards more accessible formats.

Commissioning is still there: more than half of housing in Russia is not rented on time

What are the reasons and how are developers trying to solve the problem?

Victoria Safronova, Director of the Commercial Real Estate category at Avito Real Estate, reported on June 16 that demand for the purchase of warehouses in Russia in January – May 2026 increased by 13% compared to the same period in 2023, and for rent by 30%. She noted that in the sale of warehouse real estate, the largest increase in demand compared to January–May 2025 was recorded in the Tyumen Region (+14%), Moscow (+7%) and Novosibirsk Region (+6%).