Demand for ready-to-renovate apartments in primary housing market gradually growing – developers
The demand for ready-to-renovate apartments in Ukraine's primary real estate market is gradually growing, their share in the sales structure of individual developers reaches 50%, follows from the results of a survey of developers conducted by Interfax-Ukraine.
"Before the full-scale war, the share of apartments renovated by the developer was approximately a third of the total sales volume. Now, this is up to half of transactions. The demand for apartments renovated by the developer is growing. Firstly, it is cheaper than finishing the apartment yourself. Secondly, much faster. Moving into new housing is possible immediately after the house is handed over, while repair work carried out independently takes at least several months – six months. For many people, this factor is critical," Commercial Director of Intergal-Bud Anna Laevska said.
According to her, Intergal-Bud offers customers the final finishing of an apartment (flooring, wallpaper for painting, interior doors, electrical wiring and fittings, plumbing) with designer renovation in three styles, as well as installation of furniture and kitchen.
Laevska said that over the past year and a half, the company has revised prices for repair services several times. Today, the cost of designer renovation is $300 per square meter, which is $100 lower than before the full-scale war. Furnished renovation from the developer will cost $600 per square meter.
"We understand that renovating an apartment in a new building is a big expense. In conditions of exchange rate fluctuations, when everything around is already becoming more expensive, a democratic price offer from the developer is a step towards Ukrainians seeking to improve their living conditions. We have no plans to revise the cost repairs, but, we understand that further developments will depend on the prices of materials," the expert said.
As the DIM group of companies reported, the share of ready-made renovated apartments in the structure of demand in the primary market is 45%.
"Among the advantages of an apartment renovated from a developer is as much as possible transparency and accountability. The buyer delegates supervision of the execution of the order to the developer and already accepts the fully finished product at the stage of receiving the keys," DIM Marketing Director Daria Bedia said.
The developer offers four types of finishing in its projects: basic renovation costing $650 per square meter, kitchen with appliances – additional $50 per square meter to the cost of basic repairs, cabinet furniture – additional $30 per square meter, upholstered and separate furniture – additional $20 per square meter. DIM engaged the Anthracite design bureau to develop renovation projects.
"We set ourselves an ambitious task: to overcome the prejudice that a renovated apartment in a new building is always about a typical renovation with budget materials, the same colors and style. Our partner has developed a whole line of adaptive design projects that differ in style, color scheme, content and price," Bedia said.
Meanwhile, ready-to-renovate apartments are not in demand in business-class residential projects and are more relevant in comfort and economy class, according to City One Development.
"Based on many years of experience and analyzing requests from clients, we can say that making ready-to-renovate apartments in the business segment is not practical for a developer. The vast majority of our clients choose apartments for themselves and want to independently select and develop a design. Renovated apartments are relevant in the economy and comfort class. But this is no more than 5% of total demand," City One Development Marketing Director Dmytro Novikov said.
Among the disadvantages of ready-to-renovate apartments, Novikov named a higher cost, an increase in the time it takes to obtain housing, and predominantly standard design solutions that do not take into account the individual request of the buyer.
According to him, the experience of sales of the first and second stages of the Novopecherski Lypky residential complex showed that the most popular renovated housing was one-room apartments, while two- and three-room apartments were sold less actively.
"So far, we have no requests from the developer for ready-made apartments to be renovated. Clients continue to be interested in ready-made apartments even at the final stage of construction, that is, the trends that arose with the beginning of the war continue to this day," he said.