The current situation on the Moscow real estate market can be described as neither active nor slack. The trend toward stabilization that emerged last autumn, however, does not mean that the prices have come to a standstill. Within one week, they can increase by one percent but drop back again the next. For three years, there have been no such slight price fluctuations.

Experts have noticed the following trend: low quality dwellings are becoming gradually cheaper, while the cost of expensive real estate continues to grow little by little. Within half a year, a square meter in an inexpensive house made of prefabricated concrete blocks has gone down nearly 5 percent, and a two room apartment that six months ago went for $200,000 is now available for $190,000 or even less. Also falling is the price of brick houses built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Realtors believe that by the end of the year, this fall could reach 15 to 20 percent. Monolithic high quality brick dwellings and Stalin period apartments available on the market are also evidently overpriced, but since they have been in steady demand, their cost can be expected to go down very little, if at all. As for the new elite real estate, its price is rising by 0.5 percent (which is $50 to $100) monthly per square meter. It’s for the first time in several years that revenues from bank deposits have surpassed the revenues from real estate investment. It’s expected that the stabilization on the Moscow real estate market will continue until the end of the year.

Unlike the real estate market in Moscow, last year the new real estate in the Moscow Region continued to grow at a steady pace. Yet, in December the prices almost stopped going up. In January, the market tried to make up for the fall, but in February and March things returned on their course. The prices began to rise in April, and in three months the price of one square meter in most houses under construction increased by 2 to 3 percent. The Moscow rent market showed a slow but steady increase in prices and considerably reduced offers of economy class dwellings. One room apartments, from $600 to $1,000 a month, and two room apartments, from $900 to $3,000, are in the highest demand among people who want to rent apartments in Moscow. In the first four months of this year, the rent of elite class large apartments grew considerably: they went up in price by 25 percent, or by $1,700 per square meter.

As for the business class sector, the rent of two room and three room apartments has grown markedly. One room apartments are rented for an average of $1,200 per month. In the economy class sector, rents remained practically unchanged. One room apartments were rented in January for an average $665 and in April for $670. The price of two room apartments went up only slightly, while that of three room flats increased considerably, by 4 percent, reaching $950. The rent of suburb dwellings ranges from $500 a month for a modest country cottage with no indoor conveniences to $100,000 for a house of 1,000 sq. m with a plot of land from 0,6 hectare to 1,0 hectare in a forest with a cottage for the domestics and guards, located within 7 km from the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). The rent of premium class houses ranges from $6,000 to $50,000. And a two three bedroom house of 400—700 sq. m with a billiard room, room with a fireplace, sauna and swimming pool on a plot of 0,15 to 0,20 hectare in a guarded settlement will cost you from $6,500 to $12,000. The most attractive destinations are the west and the southwest with the Rublyovo Uspenskoye and Novorizhskoye highways being the most popular.

Our thanks to the experts of Evans Property Services for their help in the preparation of this material.