Renovation raises the bar – Kommersant FM

Materials for repairs have risen in price by 10-40% since the summer, analysts and market participants told Kommersant FM about this. According to the consulting group GRM, over the past three months, paint and varnish products have increased in price by 42%, and finishing and wood products by 14% compared to May-July 2023. Ozon reported to Kommersant FM that sales in the Furniture category have increased by 15% in units and by 18% in money since the beginning of autumn. At the same time, in Yandex. Market” does not note an increase in value in this category. According to their data, in August-September prices, on the contrary, decreased, for example, cabinets became one and a half times cheaper. Kommersant FM’s interlocutors believe that goods that are already in warehouses are unlikely to rise in price. With details – Daniil Babkin.

More recently, Muscovite Polina became the owner of an apartment in a new building. However, the joy of the purchase was fleeting. According to the girl, the happy moment was disrupted by calculations of the final cost of home improvement:

“A fully completed renovation will cost us 1.7 million rubles, and this does not take into account labor, because we want to save a lot on this.

We are planning to lay the tiles in the bathroom ourselves, hang wallpaper in the apartment and lay the floor. The kitchen set alone will cost about 450 thousand rubles, and this does not include household appliances.”

It’s really worth hurrying up to start the renovation. According to the GRM consulting group, by the end of the year, finishing materials will rise in price by 15-20%.

This also applies to furniture, given the weakening of the ruble and the rising cost of logistics, said Boris Sidorov, general director of the Kashirsky Dvor company: “Furniture, kitchens, laminate flooring have increased slightly in price by about 7-12%.

Now many people are not chasing brands, but the availability of certain goods, and buying what is in stock. This is a very pronounced trend; 70 percent of purchases now are made with delivery within three days.”

Stores with premium furniture and finishing materials solved the problem of currency fluctuations in a different way. According to Kommersant FM’s interlocutors, they set prices for goods in dollars or euros, and accept payments in rubles; they only recalculate them directly on the day of purchase at the current rate.

Now even wealthy Russians no longer pay attention to the brand, but to the cost, which sometimes forces them to give preference to non-European manufacturers, emphasizes interior designer Vladimir Kot:

“Prices have risen a lot, and customers have been a little depressed because of this. In the project that I am currently finishing, my clients planned to buy chairs for the kitchen from an Italian manufacturer. When we started calculating their cost in rubles, it turned out to be very expensive. And I found an alternative – Russian furniture at a price ten times cheaper, which in design and style is very similar to Italian.”

The rise in prices also affected plumbing and electronics, adds Vladimir Kot: “According to my calculations, prices increased by about 15-30% during the year. I mean toilets, sinks and bathtubs. The same applies to household appliances.

We are now mainly working with the Chinese, and their prices are also rising. The sellers themselves speak about this, citing the changed exchange rate.”

The only thing that, according to Kommersant FM’s interlocutors, has not yet risen in price due to the weakening of the ruble is labor. According to the Avito portal, demand for services in the Repair and Decoration category increased by 76% compared to the same period in 2022. But the average cost of such services has not increased. True, experts emphasize that everything depends on the complexity of the work and sometimes even on the cost of materials.

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Yana Zagorovskaya