The Moscow real estate market does not attract investors. The capital dropped from 22nd to 41st place in the list of the largest investment sites in the industry. Such results of the Jones Lang LaSalle study did not surprise Kommersant FM’s interlocutors.

Photo: Svetlana Privalova, Kommersant / buy photo

Moscow is not included in the top 30 largest real estate investment markets. Experts from the consulting company Jones Lang LaSalle came to this conclusion. According to the study, the Russian capital ranked 41st at the end of 2014. Although back in 2013, Moscow was in 22nd place in the ranking. Russian developers really have a lot of problems, noted Bulat Stolyarov, founder of the investment company IRP Group.

“Forecasts for Russia for the next year are, of course, pessimistic. Developers are deeply in debt, in a situation where it is impossible to sell already built square meters with the impossibility of refinancing these debts, and so on. Two-thirds of everything that will be built in the world, in terms of real estate , in the coming decades will be built in the countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa, where there is a large growing population and a shortage of quality square meters. In this sense, Russia is not a Mecca for developers,” Stolyarov explained to Kommersant FM.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, in 2014 the leaders in terms of direct investment in real estate were London, New York and Paris.

According to the study, the total volume of direct investment in commercial real estate reached $700 billion last year. This is the level of 2006, the pre-crisis year. In 2015, this figure may increase by another 5-10%, provided the global economy is stable. This will also be facilitated by reliable investment control mechanisms. Over the past decade, the total amount of all investment transactions in the global market has reached $5 trillion. These funds were sent to 30 major cities - London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and others. At the same time, there is a shift in emphasis to secondary cities, such as Madrid or Dublin. By 2020, the volume of direct investment will increase to $1 trillion. This is mainly due to the emergence of new sources of investment, mainly in developing countries. This is facilitated by low interest rates and the regulatory framework, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated in these countries.

Despite the low performance in the international rankings, Russia has every chance of growing the market for direct investment in commercial real estate. The head of the analytical department of the investment company Zerich Capital Management, Nikolai Podlevskikh, is confident of this.

“If the world manages to survive and not slip into a global, powerful crisis, then Russia’s prospects will be quite interesting in terms of direct investment. The fact that there is optimism about China and other developing countries, there are threats. Their real estate market, the volume of non-payments is growing, and at some point this may lead to instability and a decrease in direct investment,” Podlevskikh told Kommersant FM.

Six months ago, Jones Lang LaSalle also researched global investment markets. Then the company's analysts noted a 13 percent increase in direct investment in the global market compared to the previous year. Particular activity was observed in Brazil, the USA and Mexico.

Polina Smertina

"Russia is not a Mecca for developers"