Press 2009
Commercial Real Estate North-West №12-1 (27)
Hoteliers Peg Best Spots
St. Petersburg owes the scope of hotel construction to the municipal program of creating hotel infrastructure. The crisis corrected the plans of the city government. When this program was adopted in 2007 the authorities were planning to increase the accommodation stock to 34,000 rooms by 2010, but now they are talking about 32,000 operational rooms by 2011. Nevertheless the hotel segment looks better than others, for this is the only industry where developers still announce new projects, even if with delivery dates beyond 2011.
December 2009 - January 2010 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate North-West №12-1 (27)
"Democrats" Grab Retail Space Market
The retail real estate segment is most saturated in St. Petersburg real estate market and will remain such for many years to come. In 2009 experts fixed a remarkable drop of rental rates and warned developers against launching new projects. The existing players are forced to accommodate for the new conditions and migrate to more democratic formats.
December 2009 - January 2010 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate North-West №12-1 (27)
"If you have an opportunity to enter the market it`s easier to do now."
The participants of St. Petersburg market entered the year 2009 torn by doubts and fears. Many fears were justified but others were not. On the New Year Eve we asked our readers to answer three questions and examine the positive aspects of the crisis.
December 2009 - January 2010 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №24 (130)
Occasion for Optimism
The year 2009 was very difficult for the Petersburg real estate market. Some have already christened it as “the worst year in history.” The depth of the fall was different in different segments but problems were common for all. The drop of rental rates, shrinking demand, and credit crunch resulted in the suspension of development projects. At the same time representatives of the business community are consoled by the fact that everything could be worse. Everybody mastered volens nolens the new rules of the game and went on working.
December,16-31 2009 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №24 (130)
Offices: Struggle for a New Life
The office real estate was probably the most affected by the crisis segment of the commercial real estate market. Sharp decreases in demand and rent rates, growing vacancy rates, inability to pay off credit debts – all these factors have resulted in a growing number of frozen projects while many real estate assets became the property of banks. For example, Sberbank is now a co-owner of Capital City project that Capital Group has been building in Moscow-City. VTB has acquired a 51% stake in Sistema-Hals developer company; the bank became the owner of Detsky Mir retail store located in the very center of Moscow and is now the major shareholder (75% minus 1 share) of MC Dynamo that owns a project to build two stadiums and a number of office and retail centers in Petrovsky Park. VneshEconomBank (VEB) has received all real estate assets of Globex bank (the total area of 700,000 sq m), Alfa-Bank acquired two business centers that earlier belonged to Kopernik Group. The banks now create special structures to manage the given assets: Sberbank has established Sberbank-Capital, VTB – VTB Capital, VEB – VEB Invest, etc.
December,16-31 2009 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №23 (129)
A Patriots’ Market
In recent years, investment in Russian commercial properties grew at breakneck speeds. Just in 2006, they were 10 times higher than the preceding year. As reported by consultancies, from 2005 to 2008 the total money infused into the realty market exceeded $10 billion. Of this, more than half came from Western investment funds which snapped up offices, malls, warehouses and hotels like hot cakes, attracted by 20% yields – a far better deal than they could possibly strike in Europe. However starting last fall Western managers withdrew some $5 billion from the Russian market. Will they come back any time soon?
December,01-15 2009 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №23 (129)
Review of the Moscow Hotel Market
The Moscow hotel market has suffered most among all the large European cities. First evidence of this is huge drops in room prices. However, the reality is that the capital market was significantly overheated – until May 2008, with prices of accommodation services overinflated, like in no other European capital.
December,01-15 2009 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №23 (129)
Expats Going out of Fashion?
Before the crisis, many foreign professionals were eager to make their career on Russia`s commercial real estate market. The rapidly developing Russian market was generating stable revenue flows beyond any imagination. The declared developer projects were the largest-scale; it was the time of challenge for market professionals to indicate in the CV. When the current crisis started many of those foreigners found themselves idle. Is it really so?
December,01-15 2009 | More ››
Commercial Real Estate №22 (128)
Destitute City
According to the Moscow Department of Finance, the first 9 months of 2009 have seen lower investment contract revenues coming into the city`s coffers from developers, to the tune of 7.964 billion rubles – 73.7% less than in the same period last year. If the capital continues to build relationships with developers on the classical “pay for play” principle, there is a risk it will be left without both “pay” and “play”. Is Moscow ready to make concessions for the developer? Officials assert that this is already being done.
November,16-30 2009 | More ››
REurope, №60
Russian retail looking robust — GVA Sawyer
A new report from GVA Sawyer suggests that the Russian retail and entertainment sector has been holding up well in 2009.
November,2009 | More ››
