In Moscow, after the start of mobilization, the demand for rental apartments decreased

Demand for renting apartments in Moscow over the past week has fallen by 10%, and for expensive housing - up to 50%. Due to the departure of people from the capital, some vacated apartments are offered at a discount or put up for sale,

Requests for renting apartments in Moscow after the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia on September 21 decreased by 15% compared to the previous week, according to data from the Cyan portal provided by RBC. The company analyzes user activity on the site by comparing ad views and ad calls. Similar data and the agency "Etazhi", according to which the demand for rent in Moscow and St. Petersburg is now 10% lower than in early September, and 15% lower than the same period last year.

The decline in September is comparable to the market reaction at the end of February 2022, when the demand for apartment rentals in Moscow after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine fell by 14% over the week, says Alexei Popov, head of Cyan.Analytics.

Demand for rental luxury real estate in the capital fell more. In this segment, it collapsed immediately by 50%, says the head of Apple Real Estate Danila Savchenko. The same market reaction was observed in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic , and in February of this year, he clarifies. “Clients who began to return to rent in July-August 2022 are now terminating contracts. Some of them leave for other regions to be with their families, some go to other countries, and some choose cheaper apartments against the backdrop of the economic situation,” Savchenko notes.

How has the number of apartments for rent changed?

According to "Cyan", after September 21, the volume of supply in the Moscow market increased: the number of apartments offered for rent increased by 7%. This is due to the growth in the volume of the new offer, and with a decrease in the activity of the audience, Popov clarifies.

In "INCOM-real estate" the number of apartments that can be rented has not increased, says Oksana Polyakova, deputy director of the agency's apartment rental department. However, according to her, part of the owners decided to put the house up for sale. “Approximately 15% of rented apartments returned to sale,” says Polyakova. Etazhi notes that due to the weakening demand in the secondary housing market, in the spring of 2022, the trend for the parallel sale and rental of apartments intensified. In this case, the owner enters into fixed-term lease agreements that are valid until the sale of the object.

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The volatility in the rental market is already reflected in the rates, it follows from the data of the Floors. “Some owners are trying to rent out housing at the previous August rates, others have begun dumping and, under long-term prepaid leases, agree to discount and rent apartments at 10-15% below summer rates,” says Andrei Serdyuk, an expert in the sale and rental of residential real estate of this agency. .

Tenants who rented apartments at last year's high rates are now considering moving to more comfortable housing at a discount, Serdyuk notes. Among the tenants there are also clients who, a week ago, were ready to buy business-class apartments, but began to consider renting for themselves, as they are not ready to part with large amounts of cash or take out a mortgage, the expert adds.

How has the housing market reacted?

After September 21, buyers, sellers and developers have taken a wait-and-see attitude and are not yet making hasty decisions, says Nadezhda Korkka, managing partner of the Metrium real estate agency. It will be possible to see noticeable changes only in a week or two, when market participants adapt to the new reality, she suggests.

“We do not record any particular changes in customer behavior. There are several cancellations of reservations [for the purchase of apartments], this is more than usually happens in a week, but they are not of a massive nature. There is no panic or excitement,” says Korkka. There is a slight decrease in the number of bookings, but there are no refusals from transactions, confirms Yana Glazunova, general director of the VSN Realty agency. She believes that in the near future it is possible to cool the demand for housing, but it is unlikely that it will be ubiquitous. According to Korkka, the real estate market is very inert and everyone is waiting to see how events unfold.

Mutko offered to make an indefinite family mortgage Business

At the end of February, the Central Bank sharply raised the key rate almost twice, to the historic 20%. After that, home sales surged in March as buyers closed deals using previously approved mortgages. In April, on the contrary, the number of transactions fell by a third both in the primary and secondary markets. According to the results of the first half of the year in Russia, 10% fewer apartments were sold on the primary housing market than last year, according to Rosreestr. But in July, the market began to gradually recover. Sales were supported, among other things, by subsidized mortgage programs that extend to the primary housing market. State-subsidized rate programs account for about 35% of mortgage transactions in Russia. Over the past seven months, the Bank of Russia has been gradually reducing the rate, on September 16 it was reduced to 7.5%.