Housing construction in Russia expected to rise in 2018
Published on 08/09/2017
The volume of housing construction in Russia will begin to rise again in 2018, Alexander Plutnik, Director of the Russian Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
In a report produced for the Eastern Economic Forum, the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending stated that by 2023 the volume of housing stock in Russia will reach 4.1 billion sqm, which is 18% more than in 2017.
After two years of growth – including a recording breaking 2015 – the housebuilding sector in Russia suffered a slight drop in 2016. Nevertheless, it exceeded expectations. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, housing construction in Russia amounted to 79.8 million sqm in 2016, more than the 76-77 million sqm Mikhail Men, Head of the Ministry of Construction, predicted. This was a drop of 6.5% from 2015’s 85.3 million sqm. The prediction for 2018 is a total of 88 million sqm.
What’s driving residential construction?
Controversial plans to renovate tens of thousands of Khrushchev-era housing blocks in Moscow will dominate Russia’s residential building sector over the next few years. The project will be highly influential in driving this vital sub-sector forward – and with 145 million people, large amounts of new housing will always be in demand. This will only increase with the growth of consumption in line with the country’s overall economic recovery.
The New Moscow development, expanding the city by 1,500 sq km, is another major project boosting housing construction. From January to August 2017, 700,000 sqm of residential housing was completed, and that is set to rise to 1.6 million sqm by the end of the year. By 2035, 60 million sqm of residential property is planned for the area.