Preferential government programs remain, but few Russians can take advantage of them
How to buy an apartment in 2024, when preferential mortgages are a thing of the past for many, and real estate prices continue to rise? Despite the difficulties, it is possible to achieve a better deal. Experts conducted a study of the housing market and gave ten relevant recommendations to buyers of new buildings.
Tip number one is to take advantage of a subsidized mortgage. Despite the fact that the preferential mortgage program for all citizens ended on July 1, some categories of borrowers can take advantage of favorable conditions.
Mortgage is still available: for IT specialists (rate up to 5% per annum), family (up to 6% per annum), Far Eastern (2% per annum), rural (3% per annum, for building a house).
— The difference between preferential and market rates is very large, so before making a decision to purchase an apartment, it is recommended to carefully study all current state support programs. You may be able to use one of them and save a lot on interest. In addition, many developers offer subsidized loans. True, a reduction in the market rate to 11-12% per annum is achieved by increasing the cost of the purchased apartment, says one of the authors of the study, managing director of the Metrium company Ruslan Syrtsov.
Second — one-time payments. In addition to preferential mortgages, there are other measures of state support for home buyers. Large families can count on a one-time payment to pay off a mortgage of up to 450 thousand rubles. It can be received by Russians who had a third or subsequent child born from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2024 and who have an active mortgage. The age of older children does not matter. Official marriage registration is not required. You can use the program only once.
In addition to the federal ones, there are also regional programs to support home buyers. Conditions may vary, so check with your area before purchasing a condo. For example, in Moscow there are programs for large and low-income families that provide compensation payments. State employees, veterans, military personnel, civil servants, rural residents, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, medical workers, young professionals, researchers, single parents, teaching staff, displaced persons and other categories of citizens can count on regional support.
Third recommendation: use market mortgage for a short term. Certainly. If you can't count on any form of support and are forced to choose an unsubsidized mortgage, now is not the best time to borrow. Average rates have exceeded 18% per annum, and buying an apartment will result in a huge overpayment — two to three times.
However, this does not mean that a mortgage completely loses its meaning. In some situations it may come in handy. For example, if you plan to quickly repay the loan by selling your old home, and most of the proceeds will cover the costs of a new apartment. In other words, if you view an expensive mortgage as a short-term means of raising funds for a few months or even weeks, it is quite possible that the overpayment in interest will be insignificant.
It is important to remember that rates vary among credit institutions. For example, in the first week of July, the average rate on unsubsidized loans issued in one large bank was more than 20% per annum, and in another — 16.4%. The difference is almost four percentage points. Pay attention to the mortgage products of medium-sized banks. As a rule, their rates are lower than those of market leaders.
The fourth tip is to look for more affordable mortgages from developers. Some of them are still developing, together with banks, their programs with a reduced rate (11-15%) for buyers of new buildings. Alas, they, as a rule, do not concern housing in the mass segment.
Pay attention to offers from banks that are not in the top 5 in popularity among borrowers: their conditions may be favorable, especially in individual projects.
“Another saving option is a mortgage with a variable rate,” says Svetlana Bardina, director of the residential real estate sales department of the Summa Elements Group of Companies. — The buyer-borrower has two accounts: one for the down payment (from 20%), and the second for the loan amount. For the first six months or a year there is a fixed rate of 4.9%, after which the rate changes. This allows you to reduce costs during the most expensive period for new residents, when you need to make repairs and move.
The fifth option is an installment plan from the developer, which can be an alternative to a mortgage. The main condition is the presence of a high and stable income.
Installment terms vary greatly depending on the specific project, so it makes sense to ask each developer if such an option is available (and installment plans are not so common, especially in the comfort class). Here are the most common installment plans.
Down payment: comfort class — 20-50% of the cost of the apartment; business class — 15-70% (most often — 30-40%); premium class — 10-50%.
There is good news: installments are provided mainly without interest. Less commonly, developers offer installment plans at interest, which can range from 10% to 18% per annum. Terms vary from 3 months to 10 years. The most common installment plans are for 6-12 months.
One of the main questions that apartment buyers face is whether to choose a new building or a secondary home. Therefore, advice number six: in the current situation, when buying an apartment involves an unsubsidized mortgage with high rates, it is more logical to choose ready-made housing. This can be either an apartment from the developer in a rented house, or an option on the secondary market.
The fact is that buying an apartment in a building under construction, especially at an early stage, involves additional costs. You will have to wait for the completion of construction, which means, most likely, you will have to rent an apartment, make repairs and incur other related expenses. Therefore, if you are not willing to wait and cannot count on a subsidized mortgage, it is recommended to consider options for ready-made housing.
Another recommendation concerns the purchase of housing at the foundation pit stage. Many apartment buyers consider options at the initial stage of construction, believing that this will save money. In most cases, this is exactly what happens, but there are exceptions, and they are becoming more common.
The fact is that there is a lot of ready-made supply for sale in new buildings that have already been put into operation, and the prices for it are sometimes differ slightly from the cost of apartments in houses at the initial stage of construction.
For example, in the Moscow market of mass new buildings, at the initial stage, developers are implementing 20 projects, offering 3.4 thousand apartments at an average price of 343 thousand rubles per square meter. At the same time, the market of ready-made mass new buildings includes 53 residential complexes with 1.2 thousand apartments at an average price of 346 thousand rubles per square meter. As you can see, the difference is small.
The situation is similar in the market of new business class buildings. In Moscow, 28 projects are being implemented at the initial stage of construction, where 4.8 thousand apartments are offered at an average price of 448 thousand rubles per square meter. There are 64 complexes with three thousand apartments on the market of ready-made new business-class buildings at an average price of 495 thousand rubles per square meter. The difference is more significant, but there are nuances here too.
“I’ll give a specific example of the difference between the foundation pit and the finished projects in the Zamoskvorechye district,” comments shareholder and managing partner of the Osnova Group of Companies Oleg Kolchenko. — You can find a ready-made business class complex in the Paveletskaya area near the Garden Ring at a price of 550 thousand rubles per square meter. At the same time, two projects under construction, which are located further from the center, are sold at 620 thousand rubles per square meter. In other words, study the local market well, taking into account not only new but also completed projects.
Another option is a country house as a possible alternative to housing in the city. The average cost of an apartment with an area of 52 square meters in the mass and business segments is almost 22 million rubles. And, for example, within a radius of 5 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road there are 250 houses worth up to 21 million. These are mainly cottages with an area of more than 100 square meters, and most of them cost less than 15 million. But, of course, life in a country house is not as easy as in an apartment. You need to be prepared for the need to have a car (or regularly pay for a taxi that will take you, if not to your place of work, then at least to the nearest metro station), to constantly repair and care for your home.
Many buyers are interested in , is it worth buying an apartment now or is it better to wait for a better moment.
“It’s almost pointless to wait in the real estate market, since housing prices are rising, and in the new buildings market this growth is outpacing inflation,” says Dmitry Golev, commercial director of Optima Development. — The wait is justified if you cannot purchase an apartment with your own funds and need a loan, but preferential programs are not available to you, and at the current mortgage rate you cannot afford a loan. You can’t count on refinancing at current rates either, because in just one year of payments you can overpay 18% of the loan amount. In such a situation, it is not worth taking out an expensive mortgage. It is better to wait and look for alternative solutions to the housing issue — for example, rent.
And, finally, you can pay attention to a less traditional option — auctions and auctions for the sale of property. Here you can find housing at a price significantly below the market price: apartments seized from the city, seized, mortgaged and put up for sale as part of bankruptcy cases. Starting prices at such auctions can be 15-30% lower than the market.
However, it is important to remember the risks. The results of bidding can be challenged in court, for example, if violations are identified in the bidding procedure (deadlines, publication of notices, completeness of information, etc.). In addition, heirs claiming the apartment may unexpectedly appear and challenge the results of the auction. There is a risk of purchasing an apartment with debts on utility bills or with registered tenants, whose eviction will have to be carried out through the court.