The median price of apartments in the secondary market of Kyiv was $1,308 per square meter in July 2021, which is 13.7% higher than in the same period in 2020, the press service of the address.ua portal has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“In the secondary residential real estate market, a stable but moderate trend towards price increases remains – the median price increased by 1% in July 2021 compared to June 2021 and by 13.7% compared to July 2020,” City Development Solutions Director Roman Herasymchuk said.
At the same time, according to him, the median price of one-room apartments presented in the database of the address.ua portal increased to $1,400 per square meter (by 1.2% per month and by 17.7% per year), two-room apartments – to $1,301 per square meter (0.6% and 18.8%), three-room apartments – to $1,181 per square meter (less than 1% compared to June and an increase of 7.7% per year).
“The continuing rise in prices is due to objective long-term factors such as stable demand, good indicators of profitability of investments in real estate and a systematic rise in the cost of construction, allows the secondary market to compete with the primary market, the volume of finished housing on which is not sufficient to meet the needs of the population in square meters,” Herasymchuk said.
According to him, in July, apartments in the price range of up to $30,000 were in high demand – 33% of requests to the database of the address.ua portal. The interest for housing in the range from $50,000 to $70,000 was in 29% of inquiries, from $30,000 to $50,000 in 21%, and over $70,000 in 17%.
Some 42% of inquiries to the database of the address.ua portal concerned one-room apartments, 37% of portal users were looking for two-room apartments, and 19% for three-room apartments.
At the same time, the greatest demand (38%) was for the category of apartments with an area of 50-80 square meters, 37% of requests were for apartments with an area of 35-50 square meters, 20% were interested in apartments up to 35 square meters. Housing over 80 square meters were interesting only for 5%.
“In the coming months, we can expect an increase in market segmentation – the main demand is for new housing built in the 2010s, which increases the discrepancy in prices between the old and new housing stock,” Herasymchuk said.
According to the expert, the main factor holding back the price growth is the pool of less liquid apartments in the old housing stock, which accounts for more than half of the current supply.
Herasymchuk predicts that the trend towards price increases in the coming months will continue.
The results of the study of the secondary real estate market in Kyiv for July 2021 are based on the analysis of ads posted on the real estate search portal address.ua, as well as user activity (479,519 visits in July 2021).
The state-owned enterprise Artyomsol in 2020 reduced salt production by 41%, to 1.18 million tonnes, which is associated with weather conditions, quarantine and increased competition in world markets, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to it, Artyomsol produced 762,200 tonnes of ground salt used for sprinkling roads without packaging, which is half as much as in 2019, and this is associated with a warm winter in Ukraine and far abroad. According to the state-owned enterprise, the production of packaged salt increased by 3.6%, to 186,400 tonnes, whiles the production of iodized salt decreased by 6.6%, to 53,200 tonnes.
Salt packed in bags (10 kg, 20 kg and 50 kg) was produced in 2020 by 27.6% less only 147,600 tonnes, production of salt packed in flexible intermediate bulk containers reduced by one third, to 51,000 tonnes.
The output of salt briquettes over the year, according to a press release, decreased by 6.7% , to 11,200 tonnes, while salt blocks increased by 17%, to 3,400 tonnes.
The state-owned enterprise indicated that in 2020 the enterprise shipped its products to 15 countries of the world. The main importers of its products are Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Belarus. More than 70% of the products were sent to the Ukrainian market.
According to the enterprise, at the end of 2020, there was a tendency to increase production volumes of the entire range.
“We have started a program of ‘rehabilitation’ of the enterprise, which includes a set of rapid measures to improve production efficiency and social support for workers. In 2021, we plan to increase investments in renovation and modernization of production to UAH 250 million, while in 2020 the volume of capital investments amounted to UAH 66 million,” Acting Director of Artyomsol Victoria Lutsenko said.
Artyomsol is one of the largest enterprises for the extraction and sale of sodium chloride (NaCl) in Central and Eastern Europe. The production facilities of Artyomsol are located in Soledar, Donetsk region.
Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko expects that the Verkhovna Rada will soon adopt the law on the capital at the second reading.
“I took part in local elections. I voted at my polling station in Kyiv. I hope that local communities will receive worthy representatives in the government,” Tkachenko wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
The minister also complained that the Verkhovna Rada did not have time to vote for the law on the capital at the second reading.
In his opinion, this law would radically change the opportunities, in particular, for the people of Kyiv to participate in the city’s self-government, as well as restore the district and local councils and allow the community to receive much more powers, including control over the activities of the authorities.
“However, I think that the parliament will be able to return to this issue in the near future,” Tkachenko added.
Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, in January-June 2020 reduced capital investments by 35% compared to the same period in 2019, to $ 313 million.
According to preliminary unaudited interim financial results for the first half of 2020, the capex reduction was planned during this period.
“In line with the group’s 2020 capex priorities for critical asset maintenance and the completion of ongoing strategic investment projects, investments in maintenance and repairs decreased by 33%, while investments in strategic projects were reduced by 38%, which brought their share in capital investments to 65% and 35%, respectively (63% and 37% in the first half of 2019),” the report states.
At the same time, it is clarified that the metallurgical segment accounted for 47% of capital investments (50% in the first half of 2019), and the mining segment for 49% (46% in the same comparison).
The shareholders of Arsenal Insurance (Kyiv) insurance company at a meeting on June 26 decided to increase the charter capital of the company from UAH 121.5 million to UAH 202.5 million via a closed additional placement of shares.
According to information in the publicly available database of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine, 120,000 shares with a nominal value of UAH 675 per share will be additionally sold for a total of UAH 81 million.
The report also notes that the received financial resources in the form of cash will be placed on current accounts and bank deposits in the ratio of 30% to 70%. The shares of the company, on which the decision on the issue was made, do not provide for the possibility of conversion.
As reported, the company’s shareholders at a meeting on April 24, 2020 considered the issue of increasing the charter capital of the company from UAH 77.4 million to UAH 121.5 million by increasing the nominal value of shares from UAH 430 to UAH 675 (for one ordinary registered share) due to sending part of profit to the charter capital.
Arsenal Insurance is among the top three largest insurance companies in Ukraine and is number one among insurers with Ukrainian capital. Every day the company makes over UAH 2 million of insurance payments. The partners of the Ukrainian company are the leading European reinsurers: HannoverRe, PolishReinsuranceCompany, SCOR SE, Gen.
According to the information on the company’s website, chairman of the board Serhiy Avdeyev owns 24.5% of Arsenal Insurance, Maksym Tuz owns 21%, Kostiantyn Tuz some 9%, Oleksandr Solop holds 17.5%, Anatoliy Solop 12.51%, Hennadiy Moldavsky 9.99%, and Maryna Avdeyeva some 5.5%.
The level of capital declared by many insurance companies is overestimated, and financial stability indicators are not true, according to the Financial Stability Report of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) published on Wednesday.
According to the report, the central bank is concerned about most of the requirements to reinsurers. At the same time, about a third of the premiums were transferred to insurers whose solvency is uncertain, which means that the probability of receiving reimbursement is small.
In addition, some insurance companies hold funds in bank accounts exclusively for reporting on quarterly dates. After that, the funds from the accounts are transformed into other assets. Of 150 financial institutions analyzed, similar behavior is characteristic of more than half of the companies. But in general, their deposits in banks make up less than 20% of the total deposits of insurers.
The NBU said that insurance companies need high-quality and liquid assets in order to make insurance payments on time. Such assets, in particular, are government bonds and funds in deposit accounts. At the same time, many insurers invest in illiquid assets which real market value is impossible to establish – capital of enterprises, shares and investment certificates. The income from such assets declared in their financial statements averages less than 5% per year, which is significantly lower than the current profitability of deposits or government bonds, and it is almost impossible to turn them into liquid assets. Some of the securities are seized or their circulation is stopped. Another significant component of the assets of a number of companies – accounts receivable – often in practice has no market value.
According to the regulator, the insurance market requires a fundamental change in the rules of the game, since its development is constrained by imperfect regulation, which in many aspects is not consistent with the Insurance Core Principles of the International Association of Insurance Market Supervisors (IAIS) and the European Solvency directive. Consumers should receive additional guarantees that their rights will be protected, and they will receive insurance indemnities on time and in full, the central bank said.
“The priority for the NBU will be to strengthen the financial stability of insurance companies, introduce the best corporate governance practices and internal supervision systems, respond in advance to financial problems and violations of the protection of the rights of consumers of financial services,” the NBU said.
