Median price in Kyiv's secondary housing market down to $1,424/sq m in July 2022 – Address.ua

KYIV. Aug 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The median price (in US dollar terms) in the Ukrainian capital’s secondary real estate market in July 2002 decreased to $1,424/square meter, which is 5.3% lower than in June, the press service of the real estate search portal Address.ua told Interfax-Ukraine.

This indicator in the category of one-room apartments decreased by 6.6%, to $1,599/square meter. Two-room apartments fell in price by 7.5% ($1,387/square meter). The median cost of three-room apartments decreased by 5.3% and amounted to $1,231/square meter.

Almost half (49%) of the requests concerned housing in the price range up to $30,000, 25% were interested in apartments from $30,000 to 50,000, 19% from $50,000 to 70,000, and 8% of portal users considered offers over $70,000.

Demand for two-room apartments in July 2022 was the highest compared to other housing groups and accounted for 42.5% of requests to the database of the Address.ua portal. One-room apartments – 40.8%, and as for three-room apartments – 16.3% of users.

Some 40.7% of applicants were interested in apartments with an area of 35 square meters to 50 square meters, 37% of applicants were interested in apartments up to 35 square meters, and the share of requests for apartments with an area of 50 square meters to 80 square meters was 18.5%.

It is clarified that in their study, the experts relied on the analysis of ads posted on the Address.ua real estate search portal, as well as on user activity. Demand also continues to decline: 88,346 visits in July 2022 versus 96,913 in June 2022.

"Two opposite trends have formed on the secondary real estate market. The first concerns demand. The level of interest in real estate remains critically low – less than a quarter of pre-war figures. The remaining demand is concentrated in the most budgetary categories. Some 73% of requests relate to apartments costing less than $50,000. At the same time, there are more requests for two-room apartments than for one-room apartments," Roman Gerasimchuk, director of City Development Solutions, said.

According to City Development Solutions, the number of transactions even in the most liquid segments of the secondary market in the second quarter of 2022 was less than 13% of January this year. In less liquid segments, the situation is even worse.

"There is a situation on the market when there are a large number of people who want to sell real estate, but there is no demand. And there are a sufficient number of people [including internally displaced persons] who would certainly buy housing, but they do not have the opportunity. The state and banks could become a bridge that would unite the needs of these people and help restore the real estate market," Oleksandr Mryshuk, Director of the Retail Targeted Lending Department at Credit Dnipro Bank, said in the release.

In his opinion, the program of preferential mortgages at 3% declared by the Cabinet of Ministers, which will allow the first candidates from four preferential categories to receive a preferential loan from October 1 (only they can apply for a rate of 3%), can become such an instrument. For other citizens, the program will begin in 2023 with a rate of 7%.