Anomaly in the “square”
In June, new interesting trends began to form in the capital’s primary housing market for the mass segment. For example, if previously 1 square meter in a new three-room apartment was always cheaper than in a two-room apartment, now it is often the other way around. MK decided to look into the causes of the anomaly.
< p>In early June, a total of 13.4 thousand flats and apartments with an average price of less than 10 million rubles were on display in Moscow, which is 31.5% less year-on-year. Against the backdrop of a continuing reduction in supply, the average price per square meter in mass-market apartments has grown slightly — to 346 thousand rubles (plus 3.8% in May, plus 5.4% in six months, plus 22.5% in a year). But the most interesting thing is that at the moment, 1 meter in two-room apartments in Moscow is often cheaper than in three-room apartments. This is an absolutely new and unusual trend in sales. Even schoolchildren know that any product in wholesale trade always costs less than in a retail store. But not in the housing market.
Here are the specific figures cited by Metrium experts: the minimum cost of a square meter in a Moscow studio in May was 209 thousand rubles, in a one-room apartment — 176 thousand, in a two-room apartment — 169 thousand, in a three-room apartment — 175 thousand. That is, in the mass segment, 1 square meter in a larger apartment costs 6 thousand rubles more than in a two-room apartment. Nonsense. This has not happened for many years.
Another interesting fact, but more predictable, is the boom in transactions with apartments with an area of less than 28 square meters. I remember that a couple of years ago, the Chairman of VEB of the Russian Federation, Igor Shuvalov, was amused by the fact that people were buying apartments with an area of “even 20 square meters.” He would probably have torn his stomach to know that in the last two years, housing half the size has become wildly popular in the country. And even then, as a rule, it was taken out on a mortgage because of the exorbitant price.
Well, now the country’s high leadership has finally decided that people should not live in such huts, and has completely banned their design and construction. True, not every senior official understands that today a small number of Russians can afford housing of even the minimum area.
And then suddenly they started talking that by 2030 the per capita of a Russian should not be less than 33 square meters meters. That's all. Officials took a stand and quickly banned the construction of “small-sized” cars less than 28 meters. However, people rushed to buy them while such apartments were still available.
— After the announcement of the restriction on the design of residential apartments of less than 28 square meters in May, the volume of demand in the mass segment for apartments of this format increased by 19. 4%,” says Ruslan Syrtsov, managing director of Metrium. — Apartments less than 28 square meters increased in price by 8.9 percent over the month. At the end of May, the average offer price was 437 thousand rubles. per square. In June, we expect that the level of demand will not be lower due to the relatively high share of transactions with small apartments.