Real estate market 2016: moderately optimistic forecasts

The annual Christmas Summit in St. Petersburg has featured innovations in the real estate market, which help business to cope with unstable economic situation. Authorities and business experts shared their ideas and offers.

Irina Babiuk, Head of the Committee for Investment, St. Petersburg, has mentioned that it is important for the government to support investors and ensure favorable conditions for project implementation. Ms. Babiuk informs that investors have a possibility to get tax deduction for investments of more than 1,5 billion rubles for certain spheres. Previously the benefits were applied to projects with investment of more than 15 billion rubles.
The Head of the Committee for Investment has declared that investment climate in St. Petersburg is favorable and the committee is planning to make it even more attractive for foreign investors.

According to Andrey Kosarev, General Director of Colliers International in St. Petersburg, infrastructure projects with PPP scheme are the most attractive for investors. Involvement of government is a warranty payback for investors. Irina Babiuk confirms that quite a big amount of projects: infrastructure and public health, is planning to be launched next year.

The Chief Architect of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Grigoriev, also has participated in the discussion. He has mentioned that the government welcomes all reasonable offers and is ready to compromise in regards to the city General plan and Land use recommendations.
Levan Kharazov, General Director of BKN-Development, agrees that the city authorities and developers have cooperated closely during the ending year.

At the second part of the Christmas Summit the participants have witnessed the traditional business game between developers and consultants. Vladislav Myagkov, Head of the Real estate consulting practice at Ernst & Young, opened the discussion with the overview of the investment environment in St. Petersburg. Mr. Myagkov sounds optimistic, he speaks about the increased offer and possibility to choose the most investment attractive projects or land plots. He agrees that the risk exists: the absence of loan capitals for developers.

According to Konstantin Kovalev, first Deputy General Director of Pioneer Group St. Petersburg, the quality residential market will be stable. Mr. Kovaleev says that Pioneer company has managed to increase the turnover of LIFE-Primorsky project this year.
Vladislav Fadeev, Head of Research department of JLL, has shared his forecast for the retail property market. The expert thinks that the shopping centers will probably switch to turnover lease, fixed dollar exchange rate lease and start developing more entertainment projects inside the malls to increase customer traffic.

Accroding to Tatiana Osipova, General Director of SRV360, it is hard to make any forecasts for the retail property market, as it depends greatly on the dollar exchange rate.
Igor Temnyshev, Director of the Office department of Colliers International St. Petersburg: “The amount of investment in office real estate has been reduced by 20%. Next year it will keep decreasing.” The next two years 2016 and 2017 the market will be enlarged by the projects, which are already under construction.

Christmas Summit is the traditional anticipated networking event topping the year. It convenes the real estate market experts to discuss the results of the ending year and share the forecasts of the coming. The event is organized by Academy of Real Estate, the Russian Guild of Managers and Developers and PROEstate Events. In partnership with: Rostelecom, residential property expert – Pioneer Group, retail property expert – SRV, creative partner – BKN-Development, Christmas charity partner – Palkin restaurant.