Development group Absolut is selling a project on Kutuzovsky Prospekt

The Absolut development group of Alexander Svetakov, having barely received permission from the Moscow mayor’s office to build its premium ODA Gallery complex near the former Badaevsky brewery in the center of the capital, decided to sell the site. The buyer is luxury housing developer Vesper, which can pay over 27 billion rubles for the asset. Experts note that some developers have already begun to doubt the possibility of increasing housing sales in the future, as was the case this year.

Vesper Development LLC, a member of Vesper, filed a petition with the Federal Antimonopoly Service to obtain consent to acquire 100% shares in Specialized Developer Divinus Immobile LLC, Kommersant found in the department’s decision database. This structure belongs to the Absolut Group of Companies and owns 3.7 hectares on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in Moscow, where the construction of a premium residential complex ODA Gallery with a total area of ​​158.3 thousand square meters is permitted. m. The Absolut and Vesper Groups of Companies did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

For the sale of the site on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, Absolut can gain about 27–29 billion rubles, a Kommersant source in the real estate market familiar with the progress of the transaction knows. Vesper can spend another 25 billion rubles on the construction of a residential complex, and earn 70 billion rubles from the sale of space, partner Ricci | M&A Petr Vinogradov.

Developers rarely sell plots of land that have already received a building permit, continues Mr. Vinogradov. He believes that Absolut has decided to concentrate on implementing its other premium project on Luzhnetskaya Embankment. Alexandra Krzhevova, Deputy General Director for Business Development at Best-Novostroy, believes that Absolut’s sale of the site near the Badaevsky plant may be caused by high competition in the area, since Capital Group is implementing its project nearby.

The low planning horizon of the economy in general and the residential real estate market in particular could influence the decision to sell the asset, Ms. Krzhevova believes. Housing sales in new buildings in Moscow in January-October 2023 increased by 31% year-on-year, to 91.6 thousand transactions. However, already in 2024, experts expect a slowdown in the pace of construction. According to the head of the center for analysis of the real estate market of the department of banking regulation and analytics of the Central Bank, Alexander Kopylov, what happened in the primary market in the summer was not a revival, but “a set of different excitement associated with the expectation of a change in the mortgage rate, the abolition of certain benefit programs.”

In addition, the authorities are now discussing increasing the down payment on preferential mortgages for housing in new buildings to 30%. Initially, 15% of the total cost of housing was sufficient for the down payment under the program, but in September 2023, amid overheating in the mortgage market, the regulator raised the minimum contribution to 20%.

During 2023, developers continued to replenish their portfolio of development sites, although their activity is lower than in 2022, which is also due to the progressive increase in the key rate of the Central Bank, says Pyotr Vinogradov. According to his estimates, by the end of this year, the total amount of transactions for the acquisition of development sites in Russia could be about 300 billion rubles, which is 15% less year on year.

Daria Andrianova