The Housing Market in Russian Cities and Housing Construction in 2022

Last year, the Russian real estate market was fully affected by the shocks that hit the domestic economy, passing through several phases. The first months were marked by the continued growth of real estate prices with a shortage of supply. The mechanism of government mortgage support worked out in the previous years stimulated the demand ensuring the prevalence of mortgage transactions in the total volume of deals in Russian cities. The changes in socio-economic situation that took place at the turn of winter and spring amid the aggravation of geopolitical tensions caused panic among buyers and sellers on the real estate market and a significant drop in the volume of transactions. A sharp increase of the key rate by the central bank to 20% led to a collapse of mortgage lending by the banks. The rapid buying up of “cheap” supply was carried out by means of withdrawal of cash from bank accounts by the population