Experts of the RBI Holding about St. Petersburg real estate market

"Development" - this word has become the keyword to the St. Petersburg real estate market in 2011, positive dynamics was observed in all areas - demand, supply, price. The experts of the Holding Company RBI tell us about what will be remembered for the 2011 market history and what will bring 2012-th.

 
Mass housing market, 2011: St. Petersburg agglomeration and fragmentation of the market

The new trend of this year - the formation of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area. "Obviously, the city is growing in breadth, - says Vera Seryozhina, director of analytical marketing Holding RBI. - Now in new areas about 1.5 million square meters of housing are being built, which are not homogeneous in composition and price. The main zones: the north - Devyatkino-Bugry, east - Kudrovo and Vsevolozhsk, where multi-story housing of economy-class costs 50-60 thousand rubles / m; south - Pushkin, dominated by low-rise residential projects at a price of 45 rubles / m '.

The distinguishing feature of 2011 - separation into classes of business (most of the projects integrated development (CTO) and projects that are located in remote residential areas) and comfort (quality projects in areas with specific characteristics or in prime locations of off-center areas). Projects comfort-class occupy 22% of inventory in the current construction site, and are on average 15-20% higher than economy class. CTO occupies to 20% of the overall supply and are in the stable demand of buyers - sales are up to 35% of sales in the classical area of mass housing in St. Petersburg.


Elite Real estate-2011: reducing of the supply and new desires of buyers

The whole 2011 demonstrated a recovery in demand in the luxury segment (up 2.5 times in comparison with 2009), which takes place against the background of supply reduction (see Table 1). The main volume of the proposal (58%) is concentrated in the Petrograd district (including Krestovsky Island). This year  six projects with a small living area (1,500 to 5,000 square meters) went on sale. Exception - a project where the area of 13 500 square meters of housing. Offer in luxury segment declined 2-fold in comparison with 2008, the proportion of business class - 78%. "Our forecast is that in the elite segment will be sold 130 thousand square meters, more than the sales in 2010 - said Vera Seryozhina. - Apartments in  buildings with interesting architecture are in the strong demand, and this is another new requirement of customers of the elite. "

Тable 1

Buyers of real estate: what and how they make a choice

"The crisis has forced buyers to be cautious, - says Andrey Ostanin, director of investments of Holding RBI. - This applies to customers of mass housing, and the elite. Before making a purchase, people carefully analyze real estate developers and projects and choose, guided by experience and reputation of the company; guarantees of  putting the house in time. The cost is important, but no longer has a high priority. Both buyers of middle class and elite actively used mortgages to buy real estate in 2011. The share in mortgage transactions "Severny gorod" of up to 50%, according to RBI - up to 10%. Demand and the "value out," involves the sale of real estate available to the client's credit in the new apartment (up to 10% of total sales). "

RBI Holding to market and to the city in 2012

"In my opinion, 2012 should be the year when St. Petersburg would create and define the foundations of urban planning, - said Edward Tiktinsky, President of the Holding Company RBI. - First of all, I'm talking about the General Plan, which should have a pointing function, determine the direction of the development of the city and to reflect the future, and the Rules of Land Use and Development (risus), which obviously require a more bold approach in terms of mixing functions. It is important that the law would passed and strictly executed. The city should develop, lands must be put in revolution as quickly as possible - the market, and the townspeople expect it. We confidently look in 2012, and we are pleased that we can offer our customers new projects. In 2012 we will launch five new projects with a total area of about 200 thousand square meters. "

New projects expected to begin in 2012:

Str. Bolshaya Posadskaya, 12 - business-class project, residential complex, including apartments of different square footage and layouts (there are apartments with balconies, verandas, on the upper floors - dormer windows).

Mistola Hills - low-rise apartment neighborhood in the village Mistolovo Vsevolozhsk district of Leningrad gives all the comfort of city life in the countryside. The project is fully provided with all necessary infrastructure: shops, health center, sports complex etc. The 1st phase of the complex area of 37 thousand square meters. m will be launched on the market in Q1 2012.

Sverdlovskaya nab. (Corner of Prospect Piskarevsky that) - the project will include business and comfort-class housing with total area of 76 thousand sq.m.

Str. Savushkina 7a - on the land with area of 5 thousand sq. m. will be built the original club house (60 apartments) with quality planning, good infrastructure and comfortable parking.

Str. Zaozernaya 3A - this is the territory of "gray" zone in the Moscovskiy distrist, adjacent to residential areas where is planning to build 25 thousand sq. m. of comfort class housing.

"In 2012 the market will continue to develop, - said E. Tiktinsky - There will be new projects, increasing of the volume of real estate will continue in CTO segment, in a word, the buyer will have a plenty range of real estate tochoose from, and selection of quality proposals require all the same care and precision . In our view, the rise in prices will be in the range of inflation and the amount for the year to 10%. "