Page 62 - UKRRptMay21

Currently 700 Turkish companies work in Ukraine, nurturing a total foreign investment of $3.5bn.
On the civilian side, Turkey’s government-backed housing agency, TOKI, will build 500 houses in Ukraine for Crimean Tatars displaced from the Russia-controlled peninsula, Turkish and Ukrainian officials announced in Istanbul on Saturday. The houses will be built in Kyiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv, said Murat Kurum, Turkey’s Environment and Urbanization Minister. TOKI has undertaken the construction of houses after natural disasters in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia.
The volume of housing construction in some regions of Ukraine increased by 10-20% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, General Director of the Finance and Investment Management Association (FIMA) Viktoria Volkovska told Interfax-Ukraine. "We have analyzed dozens of housing objects working with the Construction Financing Funds. There is an increase in activity in all regions, the most noticeable in Lviv region, where the volume of construction work increased by more than 20%," she said. According to the survey, 40% of respondents reported an increase in the volume of construction work of more than 20%, some 10% of respondents noted 20% growth, and 20% – about 10% growth. Only 10% of respondents reported a drop to 10%.
Remote working will cause a 25% shrinkage of Kyiv’s ‘office footprint’ by 2024, predicted Sergiyenko of CBRE, (Kyiv Post). “In other words, if there are 2mn square meters in total supply — 400,000 to 500,000 square meters will be vacated,” he says. However, he cautions: “Offices are not going away. They are places for ideas, collaboration, socializing. A company is a social entity.”
Rents are softening during the April lockdown, with discounts up to 30%
expected, said Yuri Pita, President of the Association of Realtors of Ukraine, (Interfax-Ukraine). Assuming the coronavirus pandemic ebbs in May, rents will stabilize. However, he adds: “In the face of accelerating inflation, the cost of rent can increase by an average of 5-7%.”
The e-commerce boom pushed Kyiv warehouse vacancy rates down from 30% to 2%, according to a new report by Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate consultancy. Although 85,000 square meters of new space were commissioned last year, rates have increased to $5.5 per square meter. “It is not enough to satisfy existing occupier demand,” said the report. This year, an additional 60,000 square meters are pipeline for 2021.
Poland’s BGK Bank has agreed to fund 60% of the first phase of Lviv’s Innovation District IT Park, the technology park has reported. The State-owned Bank, Gospodarstwa Krajowego, will loan €81.5mn for the €136mn first phase of development. With a first phase expected to be completed by of end 2023, the general contractor will be Unibep, one of Poland’s largest construction companies. Spreading over a 10-hectare site which is located 4 km south of Rynok Square, the Park will feature research labouratories and offices for 10,000 IT workers and students. Companies that have already reserved space include: GlobalLogic, N-iX, Intellias, SoftServe and Perfectial.
Ukraine’s real estate magnates were recently ranked by Forbes Ukraine. The top eight are:
62 UKRAINE Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com