Housing is in no hurry to give up – Newspaper Kommersant No. 43 (7488) dated 03/15/2023

Commissioning of housing in February 2023 amounted to 8.3 million square meters. m, follows from the operational data of Rosstat published yesterday. Thus, the indicator decreased quite noticeably (by 17.2%) compared to the same period in 2022, which is explained by the almost “anomalously” high base at the beginning of last year (10 million square meters of housing were commissioned in February). In general, for January-February, the volume of housing commissioning is estimated at 20.28 million square meters. m, which is only 0.2% lower than in the first two months of 2022 (20.3 million sq. m).

Most of the commissioning of housing is provided by the private sector: in January-February, the commissioning of individual housing construction (IZHS) amounted to 11.6 million square meters. m, which is 7.6% lower than a year earlier (then it was about 12.6 million sq. m, which was three times higher than in January-February 2021). In February, 5.38 million sq. m of private houses. Thus, the figure is almost a quarter behind the February values ​​of last year, when a surge to 7 million square meters was recorded. m, but recovered to the average monthly values, fixed after that until November. Then, we recall, the commissioning of individual housing construction collapsed to 1.76 million square meters. m, and in December – and does up to 1.2 million square meters. m, which was much lower than in 2021. Such a sharp drop was due both to an objective slowdown in construction and the exhaustion of statistical factors (in particular, cadastral registration of houses that existed at that time for their gasification; see Kommersant of December 15, 2022). Taking into account the current revival of the individual housing construction market, the postponement of the deadlines for commissioning houses from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023 also played a role, which can be explained, among other things, by the desire not to take into account the last months of the year for paying property tax.

The commissioning of apartment buildings in January-February amounted to 8.6 million square meters. m, of which 2.89 million sq. m, which is 3.7% lower than in 2022 and 30% higher than in February 2021. Thus, after the December surge (up to 8.2 million sq. m.; see “Kommersant” dated January 27), the industrial construction sector slowed down, which is generally typical for the apartment building market: after increasing the pace by the end of the year and partially postponing commissioning objects for January at the beginning of the year, as a rule, there is a significant slowdown.

Evgenia Kryuchkova