There is no need to be afraid of large projects in large cities regardless of whether you have a partner in the form of a state bank or not, Alena Deryabina, CEO of Don-Stroy Invest, convinced those gathered at one of the conferences at MIPIM-2013. According to her, a developer can find support from the state. The main thing for developers is obviously the ability to interest this state in themselves.

The projects presented at the Cannes exhibition were striking in their scale and diversity: Tushino 2018, 2 million sq. m., in Moscow from the company of the same name; the residential areas of Putilkovo (0.6 million sq. m.) and Butovo (2 million sq. m.) near Moscow from Morton Group. Smaller projects were also impressive: the Hockey Legends ice palace, 80,000 sq. m., as part of the ZiL Peninsula, from the TEN Group; a shopping center in Fili-Davydkovo, 136,000 sq. m., from TPS Real Estate; the IQ-quarter multifunctional complex, almost 230,000 sq. m., in Moscow City from Gals Development, etc. As Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated, the city has authorized the construction of 30 million sq. m. of real estate. He agreed on urban development plans with investors, his deputy Marat Khusnullin clarified.

Over the past 10 years, the area of housing in Moscow has increased by 14%, but the provision of the local population with square meters still remains one of the lowest in Europe, the capital's mayor complained. Last year, according to Rosstat, about 2.6 million square meters of new buildings appeared in the metropolis and in the territories annexed to it - almost 2.5 times less than in the Moscow region (about 6.9 million square meters).

Andrey Barinsky, co-owner of the Forum Properties group (known primarily as a developer of office centers), fears that if the authorities do not “synchronize” the volumes of housing and commercial real estate construction, there may be a bias in favor of new buildings. “It is more profitable to build housing, it is well financed by banks, and commercial real estate will lag behind,” he said.

The issue of a bias towards housing has already become acute in the Moscow region. Last year, the new regional authorities spoke out sharply against projects that were not provided (or were not sufficiently provided) with the infrastructure necessary for life. This year, having announced an audit of Moscow region construction projects, officials confirmed their intention to freeze and not approve residential complexes without kindergartens, schools, etc. “Based on how much we have declared, the decision that let’s not issue new construction permits for now is a relief for the market,” believes Yulia Gordeeva, senior analyst at Sberbank Investment Research. “If we look at the entire volume of construction, it is more than 50 million square meters for five years ahead. And the market must digest this volume,” the analyst warns.

Major developers supported the government's initiative. Alexander Ruchyev, president of Morton, said that they had decided to "provide jobs for up to 30% of residents of new buildings [built by the company]." This implies the construction of shopping malls, office parks, and the development of small businesses. The government wants "at least 25% of the population in 'new Moscow' to be provided with [labor] employment on site. This is the right trend, and we need to help the government solve these problems. Especially since it is taking steps towards public-private partnership. When we were developing Vidnoye, we received a preferential loan from Sberbank for the development of social infrastructure," Ruchyev said.

But developers hope that the authorities will regulate the market carefully. "If today we say that tomorrow everything will be different, everything will collapse," said Daromir Obukhanich, vice president of PIK Group. According to his calculations, half of all mass construction projects are provided by DSKs, whose technologies "do not change instantly; it takes at least two years."

Currently, PIK is busy reorganizing and merging its two DSKs, Morton is building its own plant with an estimated capacity of 0.6 million square meters, and has attracted European architectural firms to work on new house projects, Ruchyev said. Developers are forced to modernize production and offer consumers more modern and at the same time inexpensive options - solvent demand in Russia and even in the Moscow region is not as active as the authorities and the construction business.

Landmarks: To please the state