Moscow International Investment Show. 9-10th March 2012

This year’s Moscow International Investment Show (InvestShow) held at the T-Modul Exhibition Hall at Tishinskaya Sqaure, central Moscow, was an outstanding success. The show, now in its 5th year, concentrates on residential real estate outside of Russia. Approximately Euros 34 million worth of deals were made directly at the show, and the recorded head count of visitors was 6790, over two days. Almost all the visitors were Russians although a few expats living in Russia were in evidence.

Just over 200 companies from all over the world were represented at the show which occupied a vast area, taking up the whole second floor of the Tishinskaya Shopping Centre. A second area outside was set up exclusively for Bulgarian Real Estate. This 800 square meter area was full within five minutes of the show opening, according to Kim Waddoup, the CEO of the aigroup, Moscow.

The Moscow International Investment Show specialises in flats and houses for sale to Russians who are interested in investing in real estate abroad. At the present time, Russia is market number one for many real estate companies the world over for the reason that Russia is one of the only countries not directly or indirectly suffering from continuing economic problems resulting from the collapse of credit markets.

The Russians do not have a credit problem, because very few of them take out credit. Kim Waddoup explained: “The [Russian] middle class has emerged, and they have repaired their apartments, bought themselves a new car, and have sizeable disposable income left over, and done all of this without taking our credit. Salaries are lower, but then utility costs and everything else is minimal, so Russians are playing catch-up I suppose with the Europeans with their villas in France or whatever. Whilst the spectrum has widened, the price has actually gone down. The total value of sales is much higher than it was, but the average price, judging by this event, is probably around Euros 200,000. That’s everything from Euros 30,000 in Bulgaria, to possibly up to Euros 300,000 or Euros 400,000 in Spain, Cyprus or other countries.”

All exhibitors at the show expressed the opinion that the market has at least stabilised, with sales being the same as, or slightly up on last year. “In Finland and Portugal. I’d say that the situation is stable. There was a bit of a boom in 2006 and 2007, prices went up, and that led to a cooling down period for sales for a few years. Then prices withdrew, but soon recovered. Now the market is up to pre-2006 levels again both in prices and the number of sales. In general, there are about 1000 deals a year for Finland, of which we have a small share of. Companies which employ Russians to act as an interface between the buyers and sellers enjoy an advantage because Russian buyers tend to trust Russians more,” said Maxim Pesochinsky, International Property Consultant, Advecs, St. Petersburg.

Andres Cepkauskas, ESPHOUSES, Alicante, Spain said: “the market is exactly the same as last year, it’s stable. Russians are not dependent on mortgages. Many of them are, however, pleasantly surprised to find out that they can take out a loan from developers in many countries and thus can effectively buy a property twice the value of their capital.”

Ivalina Adesania, Sales manager, Timbuild commented that: “the market in Bulgaria is strongest in the economy sector at the moment. The market is changing, and now mortgages offered by developers are really coming into fashion to buy property. In Bulgaria the average price of property that we are selling is in the region of Euros 35000.”

We look forward to meeting you at the next Moscow International Investment Show 12-13th October 2012: Moscow, Tishinskaya sq., 1, building 1.

For more information about aigroup exhibitions, please contact Kim Waddoup: kim@aigroup.ru. www.aigroup.ru