On January 28, a zoom meeting was held devoted to the  analysis of the residential real estate market. Valentin Uvarov, Head of conceptual architecture at Urban Experts, spoke about the COVID trends in residential architecture.

Event organizer: Ukrainian Real Estate Club

Marina Gurevych, Head of the consulting department at NAI Ukraine, also shared her vision of the market transformation processes, strengthened by the coronavirus, and the forecast for the development of these trends in 2021.

During the meeting, Valentyn Uvarov spoke about the reassessment of population mobility in the city, region, country and the world as a whole. Indeed, during the quarantine period, houses became not only a "place to sleep", but also an office, a recreational area, a room for eating, and a gym. In addition, the lockdown broke the stereotype of the need to buy, relax, or engage in different types of activity in different parts of the city or regions. All this can be done while staying at home.

Valentyn Uvarov noted that high-quality architecture is an indispensable condition for modern housing. Personal space and comfort are key factors when choosing a home.

One of the main trends is suburban real estate. It is important to mention that, for the first time in the past 10 years, a strong demand for suburban property has recovered. Lockdown shifted our focus from the need for "downtown housing", because those who had the opportunity to quarantine in the countryside received a great advantage in quality of life.

In addition, the main drawback, which was 5 years ago, is the lack of infrastructure, is no longer relevant. More and more developers are developing suburban areas. For example, a suburb of Kyiv is a leader in terms of development compared to the capital itself.

Another trend is more personal space in the home and work areas. In 73% of office companies, almost half of the staff will work remotely.

Valentyn also spoke about popular requests for housing:

• summer premises - large format terraces / balconies;
• greater privacy of residents. Minimizing social contact with strangers, service providers;
• own infrastructure in a residential complex / town with a full range of services;
• own recreation area only for residents of the residential complex / city.

Urban Experts – architecture company providing full-stage architecture and consulting services for mixed-use, commercial, residential, infrastructure and transport projects in the Eastern Europe region.

Leslie Jones Architecture – leaders on the British architecture market, offering turnkey solutions for retail and leisure projects, residential and transport facilities, large-scale transport projects.

Urban Experts is a licensed assessor company in certification of projects and buildings according to the BREEAM INTERNATIONAL New Construction and BREEAM In-Use standards.

BREEAM is an international environmental certification system. This standard confirms that the building is comfortable, cost-effective and safe for the environment

We use its standards in our work, therefore we create not only aesthetically attractive and commercially successful real estate.