Realtors told where illiquid new buildings are located and what the discounts are on them

A significant part of apartments in new buildings in the Moscow region are illiquid, that is, they cannot find a buyer for a long time. These statistics are provided by social media channels specializing in metropolitan real estate and development. The reasons for illiquidity are the inconvenient location, poor views from the window and environmental parameters, and the number of neighbors, Moscow realtors said. MK found out where the illiquid assets are located and whether it is possible to purchase such real estate at a serious discount.

On the primary market of Moscow and the Moscow region, about 17% of apartments are now illiquid, that is, they cannot find a buyer for many months (sometimes years). These are the statistics of real estate market aggregators, processed by specialized Telegram channels.

Strange as it may sound, in the old borders of Moscow such apartments “stuck” for sale are more common (45% of all cases) than in the TiNAO (30%) and Moscow region (25%).

Social networks provide several examples of residential complexes that have a particularly large number of illiquid apartments. One of these new buildings is located in TiNAO near a large wholesale market and technology park – hence the increased concentration of visiting workers and sellers in the surrounding area. There is also a large solid waste landfill nearby: real estate buyers traditionally view such objects with suspicion.

Another object, in which there are many illiquid apartments, is located literally on an “island” between two railways and one highway (difficult logistics and constant noise). The third example given is a residential complex, which was supposed to be commissioned at the end of 2021, but has not yet been commissioned (the current deadline is the first quarter of 2024, but there are no guarantees that it will not be shifted again).

Finally, among the leaders in “illiquid assets” is a residential area, in which, according to the original plan, there should have been a school and a kindergarten, but in reality, instead of these objects, several more residential buildings are being built.

“The principles by which illiquid real estate can be identified are simple and do not change over time,” Olga Demchikova, a realtor with thirty years of experience, told MK. – Apartments with risky neighbors, with a bad view from the window, with a poor logistics situation, in places that are considered unprestigious for one reason or another sell poorly. This is in the most general form; every property where there are many stuck apartments will definitely have one, or most likely several, of these factors.

According to MK’s interlocutor, the neighbor factor, when it comes to a new building, is determined primarily by the territory. As a rule, for economy and comfort class housing, the better the population of residents, the closer to the MCD station or other high-speed rail transport. But complexes of the “comfort-plus” class and above may be located “closer to nature” – they have parking lots and often closed areas, so being located away from transport hubs is only beneficial.

“If there are large logistics terminals, shopping centers, industrial enterprises nearby, apartments in such new buildings can be well sold as rental housing for employees of these industrial sites,” says Demchikova. – But those who bought apartments in such new buildings for themselves may be disappointed.

The first two or three floors in modern (read: high-rise) new buildings are considered the most unprestigious and sell the worst, the realtor confirms. This does not apply to business-class and higher complexes inside the Moscow Ring Road, where these floors overlook a pedestrian zone equipped according to all the standards of a modern metropolis. However, the first floors in such buildings (including renovation ones), as a rule, are made commercial, non-residential.

“In general, the main rule is: first of all, choose the location, that is, the location of the house,” says MK’s interlocutor. – For the sake of location, you can sacrifice square meters (although, of course, the number of rooms is always more important). You need to look not at the map or the name, but directly at the area. Be sure to come to the site several times using different routes, including public transport. And make allowance for the fact that when the house is occupied, there will definitely be a shortage of buses.

A common mistake buyers make, according to Andrei Tkachenko, director of a branch of a network real estate agency in the Shchukino area, is making a decision to buy an apartment where, at the time of construction, there is a reliable bus connection with the “mainland,” that is, a metro station or MCD. Only the walking distance from such a station can be considered reliable: bus routes (and this often happens) can be changed, the schedule is thinned out, and the logistics of public transport in this residential complex will be inconvenient.

“Any industrial facilities nearby, such as railways, power lines, technology parks, landfills, are a big minus for the apartment,” continues the MK interlocutor. – But we live in the real world, so taking into account the cost of apartments, many “borderline” houses are still good buys. But there is a share of illiquid assets in almost any middle-class residential complex: these are again apartments on the first floors, with windows onto a heating substation or some other service facility. Where a resident of the 20th floor sees a more or less beautiful landscape, on the first floor only fences and parked cars will be visible.

You can ask many developers for a discount on such a property, the realtor notes. However, unfortunately, few people on the primary market are willing to sell even an illiquid apartment at half price – the discount can reach 20% in the most successful cases. If this were not so, given the presence of the notorious Moscow registration, all these square meters would have been quickly sold out.