Apartments are queuing up for renovation – Kommersant FM

Russians have become more active in planning apartment renovations, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the scheduled deadlines due to a shortage of workers, market players told Kommersant FM about this. According to them, recently the number of orders has increased noticeably, but in some cases the teams are too busy, and in others there are not enough hands for certain jobs or it is difficult to find a craftsman with the required qualifications. And all this against the background of the established extremely low unemployment, which in September 2023, according to Rosstat, remained at 3%.

As a result, customers have to wait in line for repairs for at least a month, said Ruslan, a repairman for houses and apartments in the capital region: “Recently, the demand for construction and repair work has increased significantly. People even have to stand in line to wait for some sought-after master.

There is a lot of work. When winter comes, people mainly order interior work in the premises. In our case, we are now finishing the order and in parallel we are starting the second one, that is, we are managing two objects at once.

There is also a third one waiting for us, we will be working with it almost until the summer. Almost all craftsmen are now in demand, however, not everyone knows how to do turnkey repairs. We attract labor from abroad, but there are customers who do not agree to hire migrants.”

Meanwhile, in the premium segment there is no rush demand for repairs, but the problem of a shortage of specialists there is felt even more acutely, shared Konstantin Kukkoev, general director of the design and renovation studio Luxorta: “Now there is a reduced demand, but the work is all difficult, expensive, in one or two months they are not done.

The staff has shrunk a bit. We do not hire generalists, because people cannot do everything with the same quality.

The main problem is with the deadlines for painting and tiling work. Nowadays, in order to carry them out efficiently, more time and high qualifications are required.

In the economy segment, I think there are fewer problems, because generalists work there, and people simply do not pay attention to any shortcomings. In expensive renovations, materials of a high price category are used, in particular, decorative plaster, large-format tiles, which show all the imperfections and unevenness on the surface.”

Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said in September that the labor shortage in the construction industry could increase to 400 thousand people by 2030 against the backdrop of economic growth. This year he estimated the market deficit at 50 thousand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, players in the construction and renovation market have repeatedly complained about the shortage of migrants, who were also involved in finishing work. But if in 2020 foreign workers were physically unable to come to Russia, now they simply don’t want to do this, which is why they have to raise prices, explained Irina Zharova-Wright, managing partner of the Sesegar investment group:

“For example, we really loved specialists from Armenia, because they were always better in plaster, plaster, and many jobs. We worked with teams and entire companies from this country. Now it’s a different story.

We also had cool Belarusians, but now they are also not ready to come here. They have other contracts, a lot of work on the ground. Finding a contractor now who is ready to go, for example, to the Far East, is a real problem.

It is not only the materials that have become more expensive that have to be included in the cost of construction. So, three years ago we started the project and are constantly reworking the financial model, realizing that there has been an increase in price. Not only equipment and some materials are purchased at a different price; among other things, personnel costs have also increased.”

The demand for repairmen has been growing markedly since the summer. The Avito Services service estimated its dynamics at 70% year-on-year, and the services of such specialists increased in price by 15-20%.

According to the Profi.ru website, Russians were most actively looking for specialists in the construction of walls and partitions, painters and plasterers, tilers and floor layers, as well as heating system installers.

---

Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.

Vladimir Rasulov