The real estate market is talking about the increase in the cost of renting apartments

According to the “World of Apartments”, the top three cities where “odnushki” rose in price the most, headed by Vladivostok (plus 6.1% in January, the cost of renting 24,000 rubles a month). St. Petersburg (plus 5.8%; 29.2 thousand rubles) and Voronezh (plus 5.4%; 16.1 thousand rubles) added a decent amount.

The largest drop in value was recorded in Vladimir (minus 4.2%; 18.8 thousand rubles per month), Vologda (minus 2%; 14.3 thousand rubles) and Grozny (minus 1.9%; 19, 6 thousand rubles). It is curious that the increase or decrease in prices is not related to the original cost of rent. The already expensive St. Petersburg (third place in the country in terms of prices for rental housing) continues to rise in price, cheap Vologda (50th place out of 70) is getting cheaper.

Moscow remains the most expensive city in Russia. The cost of three-room apartments has not changed (64.3 thousand rubles on average), “kopeck pieces” have become “heavier” by 0.4% (51.5 thousand rubles). One-room apartments in the Russian capital grew in January by 1.2% – up to 39.5 thousand rubles.

As for Moscow prices, depending on the location of the apartment, they differ quite seriously. According to INCOM, the average rental rates for one-room apartments in January were: in the Central District – 55 thousand rubles, in the Western – 43 thousand, in the North – 39.3 thousand. The cheapest place to rent a “odnushka” is in the south-east of the capital – here offers rarely exceed 33 thousand rubles. In other districts, prices range from 33.7 thousand to 37.2 thousand rubles.

New buildings near the Third Transport Ring are knocked out of the indicators. Apartments in these houses are popular with tenants and usually cost 5-10 thousand rubles a month more than the average for the district.

Over the past month, the cost of rented housing in Sochi has fallen slightly – by 0.8-1.3%. But the southern capital did not lose the second place in the price rating. One-room apartments are rented on average for 30.6 thousand rubles, two-room apartments – for 41.9 thousand, three-room apartments – for 53.6 thousand rubles.

The cheapest Russian cities were Nizhny Tagil, Saransk and Volzhsky (68th–70th places). The rent of one-room apartments in them does not reach even 11 thousand rubles, “kopeck pieces” cost around 14 thousand, “three rubles” – from 18.8 to 20.5 thousand rubles. At the same time, housing prices continue to fall.

– Since the sales market is now practically at a standstill, people have switched to renting apartments. During the year, we predict the continued growth of interest in rented apartments,” says Pavel Lutsenko, CEO of the World of Apartments federal portal. – In recent years, rent has not grown in price as much as the sale of new buildings and resale. Yes, and the mortgage payment began to lose much to the monthly rent payment, especially with the abolition of the “near-zero” mortgage from the developer, which flourished last year. Therefore, I believe it is the turn of rental rates to increase in price.

Is there a direct dependence of the sales market on the rental market? Does the rental market always recover as soon as the sales market falls? Or are there other factors at play?

“Several factors have always influenced the rental market,” says Yulia Dymova, director of the Est-a-Tet secondary real estate sales office. – It is impossible to say unequivocally that the sales market is decisive. Yes, if there is no buyer for an apartment for a long time, some owners move to rent – either in parallel with the announcement of the sale, or even remove the property from sale. As a result, the number of offers for renting apartments increases, as a result, the starting rental price is adjusted.

As a rule, studies on the cost of renting or selling apartments are based on data that appear in ads. In reality, when concluding transactions, the initial price often changes in one direction or another, depending on the season and, of course, directly on socio-economic and political events.

Lease rates are regulated by a discount: with low demand, it averages 5-10%. With an increase in demand (the high season is at the end of summer and autumn), the owners increase the cost of renting by the same 5–10%, says Oksana Polyakova, Deputy Director of the INCOM-Realty Apartment Rental Department. But the main factor influencing the rental market is the size of the rental rate, or rather, its correlation with the mortgage payment for the same segment, emphasizes Yulia Dymova.

— Improving mortgage conditions allows some tenants to purchase their own apartments. The deterioration, on the contrary, makes us temporarily abandon the idea of ​​​​purchasing and continue to rent housing for the time being, says Polyakova. “At the same time, a decrease in demand in the sales markets does not mean its flow to the rental market: some of those who have so far refused to buy an apartment have their own housing and simply decided to postpone the change in living conditions; some are tenants and continue to rent, waiting for better conditions for the purchase (and therefore do not affect the increase in demand in the rental market).

Despite the catastrophic drop in apartment sales, landlords have become more loyal to potential tenants, Yulia Dymova continues. So, if until recently it was difficult to rent an apartment even with one small child, now an increasing number of landlords are ready to let a family with five children.

Most tenants, due to the large volume of offers, bargain and choose the best in their price segment, and the choice is now very extensive. The volume of apartments for rent is constantly replenished with new ones due to the commissioning of a large amount of housing. This is especially noticeable in the Moscow region, since many residential complexes here are rented out with finishing, and some even with furniture from the developer. This greatly facilitates and speeds up the preparation of the apartment for delivery.

– There are no prerequisites for price growth yet, as well as for their reduction. The rental market did not show significant price dynamics either during the crisis periods or in 2020–2021, when a price bubble inflated on the sales market (both primary and secondary), Oksana Polyakova sums up.