Page 80 - RusRPTFeb20

4.96mn square meters were commissioned in the capital in 2019 (up 40% on 2018), but only 1.1mn of them were built in the old borders of the city. For comparison, under former mayor Yuri Luzhkov, in his record year 2007, 4.82mn square meters were built in Moscow, and in the noughties, the volume of housing commissioned was 3-4mn square meters.
A fifth of the new housing was built under the renovation program: in 2019, that was 45 buildings with an area of more than 1mn square meters. In 2020, it is planned to build 65 buildings.
Another reason for the growth of market participants called the new strict rules for shared construction, which entered into force in July 2019. ​In 2016–2017, when the prospect of tightening regulation became clear, developers were in a hurry to get permits for the construction of facilities according to the old rules — these houses were being completed in 2019, the managing partner of Vectorstroystroyfinance Andrey Kolochinsky told Vedomosti.
Active development of industrial zones and the emergence of New Moscow, which opened new zones for housing construction, helped to increase volumes.
The total building area in Moscow since 2016 almost doubled ​- from 10 to 18mn square meters, but in recent years, demand has grown 3-4 times, experts interviewed by Vedomosti say. Demand is primarily driven by cheap mortgages - the average rate at large banks is now 8.7%. In 2019, banks issued a record 1.5mn mortgages.
What about property prices? In 2019, the weighted average price of housing in Moscow new buildings increased by 7.1%, to 248,000 rubles per 1 sq. Km, said Roman Rodiontsev, director of the project consulting department of Est-a-Tet, to Vedomosti. One of the reasons for the price increase was the new rules for shared construction - because of them, the cost price and the average level of readiness of the sold housing are growing.
80​ RUSSIA Country Report​ February 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com