Photo: Roscongress Photo Bank
Most of all, builders were waiting for news from the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2024 on the extension and modification of the terms of preferential mortgage programs. The mortgage issue has been raised, but there is still no complete clarity. Fontanka, together with the Association of Builders of St. Petersburg, asked the leading developers of the city about what interesting things they heard at the forum, which agreements they signed, and what attention was not paid enough.
Fedor Turkin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the RST Holding, was impressed by this year’s forum with an unprecedented number of participants, a busy schedule of events, a variety of stands and presentations. According to him, they have become even more vibrant, innovative and technologically advanced than last year.
— I have been participating in SPIEF every year for more than 15 years and I can say that the main difference of this year’s forum is the very powerful internal attitude of Russian business. Whatever the external circumstances, we know for sure that we can do everything, we will achieve everything,” he commented.
Among the issues that concern everyone, according to him, is what awaits business? And if the country’s leadership believes that the government, the Central Bank and the presidential administration have enough strength to develop a strategy for the development of the Russian economy, then the society feels that it would be right to involve more experts, Fyodor Turkin believes.
— Business, of course, is waiting for the return of the key rate to reasonable values, — he added. — As for the development of construction, tools should be developed to saturate the market with affordable housing built with relatively cheap bank loans. It should be implemented through affordable mortgage programs. I am sure that in order to ensure the competitiveness of the country’s economy in comparison with the leading economies of the world, competitive drivers of economic growth are needed — such as a reduced loan rate, a stable, fair and balanced ruble exchange rate, and affordable mortgages.
Sergey Sofronov, Commercial Director of PSK Group, says that everyone was waiting for news about the prospects of preferential mortgage programs, and those were announced by the president — with regard to family mortgages. The terms of its provision will undergo significant changes. In particular, the number of potential borrowers is reduced by the age restriction of children in the family — up to 6 years old.
“As for the development of St. Petersburg, it was interesting to learn about several new projects related to the quality of the urban environment and the development of the city,” he added. — These are new skyscrapers in the Lakhta area, a new resort cluster in Gorskaya and even a new concert hall on Novo-Admiralteysky Island. A major transport project — the southwestern railway bypass of St. Petersburg – will also, in fact, have a positive impact on the city, since it will allow transit freight traffic to be carried out of the city.
Sergey Sofronov noted two key points of SPIEF 2024. Firstly, the volume of transactions on projects in St. Petersburg. More than 1.2 trillion rubles, according to official data, which is almost 2.5 times more than according to agreements and intentions concluded for Moscow. Secondly, there is diversity: from the construction of a data center and recreational clusters to industrial construction, including pharmaceuticals, automotive and even fish processing.
Egor Fedorov, commercial director of GloraX, also notes among the most interesting events the decision on preferential mortgages announced by Vladimir Putin.
“SPIEF has traditionally become a platform for meetings and discussion of topical issues of industry development and key trends,” comments Sergey Sergeev, Director of Residential and Infrastructure Projects at Kronfort. — Once again, words were spoken about the importance of the building block and the housing sector in general in creating the economic and social well-being of the country, a comfortable living environment. Dozens of discussions and sessions were devoted to this. A lot of attention is paid today to small and medium-sized cities that have joined the competition for residents along with the “millionaires”, St. Petersburg and Moscow.
According to him, the trend towards creating a comfortable environment in small towns contributes to the arrival of large players in the regions. One of the trends can also be noted the development of cultural, leisure and creative clusters in previously unused territories.
— This topic was also outlined by the President of Russia, who spoke about the widespread involvement in the economic turnover of such land plots with abandoned or unfinished buildings. Their transformation and reboot will improve the urban environment, attract businesses with interesting residential development projects,” Sergey Sergeev added. — Now we are witnessing such positive changes in Kronstadt, where a large-scale project “Island of Forts” has been implemented since 2019. It has become the main driver of the development of the road transport, social, tourist and sports infrastructure of the location. Our company takes an active part in the formation of an attractive appearance of a previously closed and unused territory.
Now Alcor Group is building two low-rise residential blocks with social and commercial infrastructure here, as well as a yacht port with a cultural and leisure complex and a hotel, which will allow Kronstadt to become a new point of attraction for residents and tourists in a couple of years.
We shook hands
An important part of the SPIEF is the conclusion of various contracts and the signing of agreements.
— Signing agreements at the SPIEF is an almost guaranteed way to attract more attention to the announcements of plans, — says Sergey Sofronov. — Due to the general attention to the forum, it is possible to declare intentions very widely on this information wave. Therefore, the practice of timing development plans for the SPIEF and moving the official announcement to this site is relevant for companies from all regions, not only those seeking to St. Petersburg.
For example, A101 Group of Companies signed two agreements at SPIEF: on the construction of Russia’s largest aqua resort in New Moscow and a memorandum of cooperation with VK.
— We signed the first agreement with DOM Bank.The Russian Federation” and the corporation “Tourism.The Russian Federation,” says Dmitry Tsvetov, Director of Development at A101 Group of Companies. — It provides for the construction of an aqua resort in the sports and tourism cluster Prokshino with an area of about 125.5 thousand square meters and a cost of at least 20 billion rubles. It will consist of three main zones: an aquapark, a diving center and a surfing center, and one of the unique entertainment in it will be the first artificial canyoning zone in the Moscow region.
In addition, the water park will have children’s pools with slides, water attractions and a wave pool for adults, as well as a thermal zone. The surfing center will be equipped with a system for creating artificial waves, and the professional diving center with a variable pool depth of up to 25 meters will become the deepest in the Moscow region. A 4-star hotel with 254 rooms and a SPA center will also open.
— As part of the agreement with VK, we agreed to combine our expertise for the development of residential infrastructure, — Dmitry Tsvetov continued. — In particular, we plan to use technologies and services based on artificial intelligence to analyze the market, digitalize business processes and increase the comfort level of residential areas. In particular, VK technologies and our expertise allow us to bring sociological research to a new level, to form new approaches to the infrastructural filling of districts, the emergence of new functions in them for the market.
GC Alcor and ANO Ostrov Forts signed an agreement at the SPIEF-2024 site on the construction of a 4* Grand Hotel and a yacht port with a cultural and leisure complex on the territory of the tourist and recreational cluster in Kronstadt.
— The new hotels will open up additional opportunities for guests of the city to stay in Kronstadt for two days or more, participate in business events in a comfortable mode, and get acquainted with numerous attractions without haste, — comments Sergey Sergeev. — And the yacht port will compensate for the existing shortage of parking spaces for small vessels and create favorable conditions for the development of water sports and yacht tourism in Kronstadt. The urban economy will receive new jobs, effective demand for local businesses and additional tax revenues from the implementation of the project.
The hotel with a total area of 12.6 thousand square meters will have a room stock of at least 130 beds. The yacht port (marina) is designed for 239 parking spaces on the water, including an outdoor yacht storage area for 90 seats. Also planned in the complex is a boathouse for winter storage of vessels with a total area of 8.1 thousand square meters, floating berths with a total length of 1.6 km, a slip for lifting yachts up to 30 m in size, a hydraulic structure consisting of a separation pier, a liquid fuel berth, a mooring wall and shore protection. In addition, an administrative building with a restaurant with a total area of 1.1 thousand square meters, a multifunctional complex of 2.6 thousand square meters, where a yacht club, a children’s sailing school and trade facilities will be located, will be built as part of the yacht port.
At the SPIEF, plans were announced by one of the largest Russian developers from the Urals, the Lingonberry company, to enter St. Petersburg. Experts assess this positively.
— Today, more and more developers from St. Petersburg and Moscow are entering the regions, and local strong companies come to us from there, — comments Sergey Sergeev. — This is a positive trend. The growth of competition and the application of successful experience gained in other regions are becoming a driver for the qualitative development of the market as a whole.
This year, RTI signed two important agreements with banks at the forum.
— One of them concerns the financing of promising projects by Gazprombank in St. Petersburg, the second – with DOM.RF Bank — reinforces our intentions to continue developing projects in Moscow with the financial support of the bank, — said Fedor Turkin. — We also had a number of negotiations with representatives of the administrations of the Russian regions, they were mainly related to socially significant projects of the company.
GloraX has concluded two strategic cooperation agreements within the framework of the SPIEF.
— In particular, we announced our entry into a new region and signed an agreement with the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic (KRDV) and the government of the Murmansk Region, — explained Egor Fedorov. — The agreement provides for the implementation of a large-scale project of integrated development of territories on a plot of 25 hectares. Within the framework of the project, 170 thousand square meters will be built. The volume of investments in the project will amount to 11 billion rubles. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024 and end in 2032.
In addition, at the SPIEF, Glorax signed a strategic partnership agreement with Rostelecom, Russia’s largest provider of digital services and solutions. According to Yegor Fedorov, the document implies cooperation in several areas, the main of which is the development and promotion of effective digital solutions in the field of construction, management and operation of real estate.
“Together, we plan to improve information security tools at GloraX facilities, implement integrated systems of smart information services at all stages of the development project,” he added. — An important aspect of the partnership is the development of unified approaches to the organization of information services, testing of new technologies and the creation of joint platform solutions.
The cornerstone of a mortgage
Vladimir Putin’s statement on the family mortgage did not go unnoticed.
— Of course, the expansion of the conditions of the family mortgage program will have a positive impact on the level of demand for primary real estate in small towns, — says Egor Fedorov. — There are more than 800 small towns in Russia, which are home to about 20% of the country’s population. The decision to introduce new conditions for family mortgages will increase the investment attractiveness of small towns and slow down migration processes. In turn, the availability of such a program will encourage developers to build high-quality projects in small Russian cities, which will have a positive impact on the level of housing per capita
— Of course, the program is waiting for noticeable changes, — Dmitry Tsvetov continued. — Small towns, especially those located near large industries, will receive an additional incentive. The measure can effectively solve the problem of not only retaining the right specialists at enterprises, but also ensuring the influx of new ones. At the same time, it seems to make sense to create a database on the number of industrial enterprises in small towns and the real level of wages in them. This will help to further analyze the effectiveness of the measures taken and create a roadmap for scaling up such regional support tools.
— Most likely, the further development of preferential mortgage programs will be more targeted. This has been repeatedly stated by representatives of the authorities, — said Sergey Sergeev. — At the same time, the priority remains to support families. Thus, it is likely that the family mortgage will be expanded at a rate of 6% for residents of small towns.
However, as Sergey Sofronov notes, all preferential mortgage programs and key changes to them were previously announced by the president.
— Of course, this will be the basis for further mortgage lending practice.
The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, also spoke at the SPIEF about preferential mortgage programs. Nothing new: they need to be reduced so that loans are more affordable. However, developers do not support this position.
— The market mortgage rate of 16-20% per annum is the exclusion of any interest in housing loans on basic terms, — Sergey Sofronov believes. — These are protective rates that make it unaffordable to purchase housing.
He gave an example that on a mortgage with state support at 8% per annum and with a loan amount of 6 million rubles, the monthly payment for a period of 30 years is 44 thousand rubles per month. With a rate of 18% per annum, the monthly payment with the same loan will amount to 90 thousand rubles per month.
— I do not think that preferential mortgage loans are the main supplier of money to the economy, which accelerates inflation, — he added.
— Preferential mortgages traditionally account for a significant share of sales in the primary housing market in the mass segment. Thus, the availability of preferential programs not only allows citizens to improve their living conditions, but also supports one of the backbone sectors of the Russian economy,” comments Egor Fedorov. — As for the relationship between preferential programs and credit availability, in our opinion, it is not obvious, since the level of credit availability depends primarily on the size of the key rate.
Sergey SergeevIn turn, he noted that with a systematic decrease in the creditworthiness of the population in the medium and long term (which is expected as a result of a reduction in preferential programs), banks will be able to reduce the risks of defaults of potential borrowers and, as a result, revise macroprudential allowances. In fact, this will allow the bank to review the costs of loans and offer the population more comfortable conditions for them, which is expected to increase the availability of loans.
Striving for balance
Another issue, which is also related to high rates and the abolition of preferential mortgages, is the balance of supply and demand in the market. Nikita Stasishin, Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services, said at the forum that it had been achieved in the whole country. However, as far as St. Petersburg is concerned, developers believe that there are certain issues.
— According to analysts, in the St. Petersburg agglomeration (aggregated by all classes of primary housing and apartments) in May 2024, the market is in a slight imbalance, – says Sergey Sergeev. — The current volume of supply at the current level of demand will be sold out in 0.7 years. This situation only characterizes the fact that developers very moderately display their range of apartments, balancing volumes and prices.
According to him, a similar picture can be seen when comparing demand and new supply. In May 2024, 23% of the total area was sold. There are more housing units than went on sale (cumulative total for January — May — the difference was 12%).
According to Egor Fedorov, in St. Petersburg, 11,794 transactions were concluded in the primary real estate market from the beginning of the year to the end of May. At the same time, there are 7,701 lots of business class, 47,387 lots of comfort class, 5,748 lots of economy class, as well as 1,965 lots in the premium segment.
— Thus, the total offer is 62,801 lots. In our opinion, it is too early to talk about the balance of supply and demand at the moment,” he added.
— The ratio of the current volume of supply and demand may fit into such a definition, — Sergey Sofronov believes. — But in any case, this is a statement of fact as of now. From July 1, we will face a different reality with a significant reduction in demand at existing mortgage rates.
At the same time, the builders would like more attention at the forum to be paid to the existing strategy for the development of the construction industry, adopted in 2022 and valid until 2030 — in their opinion, it has not received enough attention.
— On the one hand, there are goals and plans, on the other hand, there is an incomplete understanding of how favorable the probability of its implementation remains, taking into account the economic climate, — says Sergey Sofronov. — On the plus side, it was said that the concept of master planning is accepted as fundamental for the development of territories. That is, it is not just an outdated set of allowed/prohibited land plots, but the design of the future state of cities and agglomerations.
Photo: Roscongress Photo Bank
Источник: www.fontanka.ru
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish