This report profiles Russia’s residential, office, commercial, industrial, and hotel real estate sectors through Q1 2014, with market forecasts for each segment.

Russia’s real estate market continues to be one of the most active in Eastern Europe. According to Colliers International, 2013 was the third consecutive year with total investment volume reaching USD 8.2bn. In addition, last year set a record for the largest average deal size, which grew to USD 186mn. Worth noting is also the fact that despite the economic uncertainty, the real estate market continues to attract both Russian and international institutional investors.
The most active players in 2013 were: Morgan Stanley (a total of USD 1.2bn invested), Hines CalPERS (USD 600mn), Millhouse Capital (USD 1.1bn) as well as institutional Russian companies such as BIN Group (USD 980mn) and O1 Properties (USD 530mn).
In 2014, Morgan Stanley and CalPERS showed a positive strategy for entering the Russian real estate market and Colliers expects many other companies to follow in their footsteps during 2014. This transaction is an important step for the future investment inflow from international investors and is a sign of the investment stability of the Russian real estate market.
Importantly, in 2013 the Russian government changed its property tax policy for commercial real estate, which is now calculated based on a property’s cadastral value rather than book value. This limits a company’s ability to manage its property tax liabilities, as the cadastral value is theoretically much closer to the market value of the asset. Colliers believes that the property tax reform is an effort to tighten the state control over the industry. The tax reform as well as other governmental measures will stimulate more asset deals on the domestic market rather than through offshore holding companies.