Average price of apartments in Kyiv reaches minimum over past five years, say experts
Kyiv, April 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The average price of apartments in Kyiv in early April 2011 fell to a record low in the past five years, beating the previous low in April 2009 of $1,823.60 per square meter, and dipping to $1,813.20 per square meter, Chairman of the Committee for Analysis of the Union of Real Estate Experts of Ukraine Vsevolod Zhoholev has said.
"In April 2011 we passed the price minimum seen after crisis in April 2009. Today the real prices on the real estate market are lower than they were in that period. Price expectations are negative. Demand for apartments is very low, while the supply is huge," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Zhoholev said that at least until autumn the price of apartments would fall by 0.8% per month on average.
"We think that during a certain period this year, and certainly until autumn, we'll register a gradual fall in the prices if no financial disasters occur. Today the average downward pace is 0.6-1% per month or 0.8% on average. I think that in the future the slow pace of price falls will continue – until autumn it will be 4-5% if the hryvnia exchange rate to the dollar remains stable," he said.
Zhoholev said that the prices of apartments are not falling at the same pace in all of the districts in the city, but mainly in downtown and districts adjacent to downtown, while the prices of suburban apartments is growing. The prices of apartments in modern residential buildings are seeing almost no falls.
"The proper price for Kyiv is around $1,700-1,750 per square meter, and today it is $1,813 per square meter, so we haven't reached that level. Today prices are overheated," he added.
Zhoholev said that currently the number of deals on the sale and purchase of apartments with mortgage credits is up to 5% of the pre-crisis number of the deals.
President of the Union of Real Estate Experts of Ukraine Oleksandr Rubanov said that if the present situation in the country's economy remains, one should not expect a revival of the real estate market anytime soon.
"If the present situation in the economy continues, one should not expect the real revival any earlier than spring 2012," he said.
Commenting on the situation on the housing market in the regions, Rubanov said that the average price of apartments in Dnipropetrovsk in the first quarter of 2011 fell by 1.5-2%, to $980 per square meter, in Kharkiv it fell by 2%, to $980 per square meter, in Odesa – by 1%, to $1,100 per square meter and in Cherkasy – by 0.8%, to $740-760 per square meter.
However, in Simferopol prices grew by 1.8% in Q1, 2011, to $990 per square meter, in Yalta they rose by 5% (the seasonal increase in the prices), to $1,200 per square meter, in Khmelnytsky they grew by 3%, to $830 per square meter and in Chernihiv by 0.5%, to $750 per square meter. The prices of apartments in Sevastopol remained almost unchanged at $1,100 per square meter.
He also said that low activity on the land market in Kyiv city and Kyiv region was seen.
He said that deals on the sale and purchase of land plots of 10-20 hundred square meters are being signed.
The Union of Real Estate Experts of Ukraine was established in summer 2007 on the basis of the Union of Realtors of Kyiv, which was founded in 1995.