Saint Petersburg Real Estate Market Overview

View onto a block of standard-type panel buildings

A rapidly growing population again aggravated the housing problem in the city. With the war years over, the country could again afford to begin building. During this period, outside of the industrial suburbs, huge residential districts were built full of standard-type panel and brick buildings with narrow layouts and quite bland or even ugly architecture. However, the housing problem was still far from solved. By this time, the center of St. Petersburg was already full of communal apartments - making the city the communal capital of Russia (according to official statistics, presently there are 147,000 communal apartments in the city or approximately 10% of the total number of apartments in St. Petersburg. However, it is difficult to confirm these statistics as communal apartments are only counted during years that a census of residential housing is conducted - the last time this was done was in the mid 19990s).

The real estate and construction boom that has been evident in St. Petersburg on and off since the beginning of the 1990s is mainly due to the recognition of land ownership rights in 1991.

standard panel building under construction

New buildings are currently being constructed to satisfy various market segments. Along with the construction of relatively cheap, standard-type houses

new buildings near Ozerki metro station

, elite housing intended for wealthy owners is also being constructed. Construction of this type is occurring in all parts of the city, including the center.

The reconstruction and renovation of dilapidated buildings throughout the city is also occurring with the application of new building technologies.

The construction of new buildings in the historic center of the city is constrained by several factors:

1. The building code prohibits major construction projects that call for random architectural styles and multiple floors.

   a new building in the Shamsheva St Petrogradsky district

2. There are a limited number of empty lots and for those that do exist, there are major difficulties related to setting up construction sites.
3. High interest rates and the absence of large numbers of big investors limit the demolition of old buildings because it is first necessary to allocate large funds for the relocation of the current tenants.
4. Ramshackle and overloaded central pipes and other utility connections require major overhauls if they are to be used in new construction.