Page 72 - RusRPTJune18

others declined, including Audi (-7% y/y), Land Rover (-7% y/y), Jaguar (-9% y/y) and Infinity (-15% y/y).
Sollers increased its UAZ sales by 6% y/y in April, but a more favourable base might have played a certain role, as UAZ sales were down 22% y/y in April 2017. YTD sales of UAZ vehicles still fell 17% y/y, although we believe that a more sympathetic base effect in the coming months will help reduce this decline by the end of the year. Nevertheless, we are cautious on the name, as the sales trend remains hardly encouraging.
Ford sales, which are conducted through the JV with Sollers, continued their strong recovery from the low base of last year. In particular, April sales were up 21% y/y, while YTD sales increased 31% y/y.
Finally, GAZ LCV sales increased 12% y/y in April and 10% y/y in 4mo18.
9.1.4 Construction & Real estate sector news
Moscow construction regulators issued 560 permits on construction of housing projects totaling 3.8mn square meters (sqm) in the first quarter , which made 1.5-fold year-on-year increase from 399 permits for 2.04mn sqm in 2017, Vedomosti daily said on May 2. In additional to booming housing market fuelled by lower mortgage rates and government support , the developers are rushing to get construction permits ahead of possible amendments to housing construction legislation that could take effects as of July 1. The latest data showed that the number of pre-sales share agreements on newly constructed housing projects in Russia in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 16% year-on-year to 0.147mn. For the same quarter of last year, the market saw a 17% y/y contraction.
The number of apartments on sale in Moscow’s secondary residential real estate market fell by almost a quarter (23.2%) over the last four years, according to Incom-Real Estate, Vedomosti reported on May 24. In April 2014 there were 41,267 lots on sale, which has fallen to 31,701 lots as of April 2018. The biggest falls were in the RUB10mn to RUB15mn ($163,000-$244,000) price range, which now account for 18.9% of offers. However, the top of the range apartments costing RUB30mn ($489,000) and upwards saw an increase in their share of objects on the market for sale from 15% to 17.5% of the total
72 RUSSIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com