The average prices for new business-class residential buildings in Kyiv amounted to UAH 48,800 or $1,820 per square meter in early September, which is 30% higher than in the same period last year, Ramil Mehdiyev, CEO of ENSO, has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The prices for business-class buildings are more intensified than the average prices for new buildings in Kyiv, which have risen over the year from UAH 26,600 to UAH 32,000 per square meter, that is, by 20%,” he said.
The expert explained the difference in the dynamics by a higher share of imported components in construction of business-class real estate. “Imported components are becoming more expensive than local production. The situation with imported materials is aggravated by quarantine restrictions and lockdowns, which have significantly complicated logistics,” Mehdiyev said.
In addition, in business class, the architecture and design solutions are usually much more complex, which bring additional costs both for materials and for work performance by qualified specialists. “You should also not forget about the global trend of housing prices rise and the fact that real estate in Ukraine has become almost the main investment tool for citizens. This increases demand, which in turn affects the price,” Mehdiyev said.
The expert predicts that the upward trend in the cost of housing will continue next year. “According to our estimates, the trend will not change until at least mid-2022. Much depends on the macroeconomic situation and the recovery of the world’s leading economies. First of all, we are talking about China, which is rapidly increasing consumption of raw materials, thereby heating up demand for the same metal,” Mehdiyev said.
According to him, we should also not exclude the emergence of new strains and, as a result, the possible introduction of quarantine restrictions. “This will most likely lead to a repetition of the situation in the spring of 2020, when there were almost no sales in the real estate market. Actually, this led to deferred demand, which was tapped in August 2020. At the same time, a rapid rise in prices began,” the expert said.
The development company ENSO, established in 2017, is implementing three projects in Kyiv.
The Kyiv City Council at a session on Thursday, September 20, made a decision to lease two land parcels with a total area of 22.2 ha located at 8, Simyi Khokhlovykh to companies UNIT Zhytloinvest and UNIT Holdings to build a residential and office complex. A total of 71 lawmakers backed the lease of 8.2 ha land parcel to UNIT Zhytloinvest and 83 lawmakers supported the lease of 14 ha to UNIT Holdings. As reported, KAN Development and UDP in 2019 will start building a residential complex of 170,000 square meters in Kyiv-based UNIT.City innovative park. The share of housing will be around 30% of the park.
The project provides a mix of housing of business and comfort classes. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2019, and the first stage, which will account for 15% of the total area (about 25,000 square meters), will be commissioned in 12-14 months.
KAN Development is also engaged in joint development for the construction of a six-story business center on UNIT.City’s area. Its commissioning is planned before the end of 2018. Its total area is about 13,000 square meters. At the same time, preliminary lease agreements have already been signed for 90% of the area. Under this project, UDP and KAN Development act as co-investors.
Apart from housing, UNIT.City will also have a university, a school, a kindergarten in the future.
As reported with reference to founder of the UFuture investment group and K.Fund Vasyl Khmelnytsky, it is planned that the area of the UNIT.City innovation park in Kyiv will be expanded to 26 hectares from 19 hectares (as of May 2018).
The UNIT.City innovation park officially opened in April 2017 on the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant. Its territory comprises the Chasopys-UNIT co-working facility, IT school UNIT Factory, three laboratories, a business campus, a fund and five accelerators.
According to UNIT.City’s website, four new business campuses, three accelerators, four funds will be created in the park before 2019. The number of resident companies will be increased to 100. By 2025, the park should include 25 hectares of space for work and leisure, as well as more than 300 companies and R&D laboratories.
KYIV CITY, LEASING, OFFICES, RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, UNIT.CITY
The Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine has drawn up the updated national construction requirements allowing the placement of pre-school educational centers on the first two floors of residential high-rise buildings. “We want to expand opportunities for kindergartens located in residential buildings. We previously built kindergartens attached to buildings. Now we divided them into groups: if the children stay in the kindergarten until 16:00, they can be located in buildings, the same requirements apply to kindergartens with up to 80 children. Kindergartens 120 children can be located in attached premises, and maybe later we can expand these requirements to 160 children,” the press service of Deputy Minister Lev Partskhaladze said, citing him.
“In many cases, especially in the central districts of large cities, there is not even enough space to place a new separate preschool educational institution. The ability to design small kindergartens in residential buildings or attached to them will significantly reduce this disparity and provide residents with the necessary social infrastructure, where there is no possibility to build separate preschool educational institutions,” Partskhaladze said.
