What kind of housing is bought in Ukraine: Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Lutsk, and Zaporizhzhya

Author

Lesia Solovchuk

During 2021, prices have gone up the fastest in Lutsk, but the buyers there are the most picky. And the citizens of Zaporizhzhya are mainly looking for apartments up to 60 square meters.

Kharkiv residents choose two-room apartment

At the end of September, housing in new buildings in Kharkiv has risen in price by an average of 4%, and since the beginning of the year prices have increased by 9.5%. The average cost of apartments in new buildings is $800 per square meter.

Unlike most large regional centers, not the one-room are in the greatest demand, but for two-room apartments with an area of 60-70 m2 are, Andriy Pravdin, Chairman of the Kharkiv regional department of ARESU. More than 60% of the supply structure is economy class apartments with an average cost of $550/m2.

According to the expert, at the initial stages of construction, 80% of apartments are bought by investors for the purpose of resale at the final stages of the house construction.

"There is a very wide range of apartments in the to-be-completed facilities. Except for the houses of the company Zhilstroy 1, apartments in which are sold out in a matter of hours after the start of sales," he said.

In the secondary housing market in Kharkiv, the average price indices increased by 9.5% since the beginning of the year. Since June 2020, the highest price hike has been recorded in the segment of one-room apartments. For instance, in the districts near the city center, the cost per square meter increased by 22%, and in the bedroom districts—by 24%.

According to the results of the Q3 of 2021, the share of sales of relatively inexpensive apartments worth up to $30,000 is more than 26%, and in facilities worth more than $100,000—8.5%. According to Pravdin, no significant price changes should be expected by the end of the year: now an optimal ratio of supply and effective demand has been formed.

Mykolaiv: Prices have stabilized after a price hike

Since the beginning of the year, prices in the secondary real estate market have grown by almost 10%. According to the Mykolaiv branch of the Association of Real Estate Specialists of Ukraine (ARESU), in the first three months of 2021, the secondary real estate market was in a "frozen" state due to pandemic restrictions. However, since April, the "compressed spring" effect has gone off, and the supply of apartments for sale has almost doubled. And in June-July there was a significant rise in housing prices: first by 4%, and later by 6%.

"Since the beginning of the year, about 300 apartments have been purchased in Mykolaiv, and that is almost 25% of the total supply," Tymur Snitko, Chairman of the ARESU city branch.

As of the end of September, the average housing price is $655/m2. The cost of a one-room apartment is $713/m2, a two-room apartment is $655/m2, a three-room apartment is $638/m2. However, since the second half of August, the peak of activity began to subside, the cost of housing remains stable, with fluctuations within 1%.

As for the primary market, so far, the market is developing pointwise: only a few new buildings are being built in the city, the cost of housing in which from January to September increased by more than 12%.

"There is no market for new buildings in Mykolaiv as such. The demand significantly exceeds supply in this segment: developers sell 95% of apartments even before the facility is put into operation," he stressed.

Zaporizhzhia is actively buying housing of the Soviet period

In Zaporozhye, since the beginning of the year, the cost of housing in new buildings has increased by 10-12%. At the same time, amid active development of the primary market, further price increase in this segment will be moderate. The apartments with an area of up to 60 m2 are in the greatest demand, Dmytro Beida, Chairman of the Zaporizhzhia regional department of ARESU, stressed.

"Until the end of the year, the cost of primary housing may increase by no more than 2-3%, but subject to a stable economic situation in the region. In the future, in 2022, the dynamics of growth in the cost of apartments in new buildings will depend on the purchasing power of people. Now there is every reason to assert that in the first half of the year prices are unlikely to change significantly in the major Ukrainian cities, such as Dnipro or Odesa, and there have been tendencies towards price stabilization since September," the expert noted.

In the secondary market of Zaporizhzhia, the cost of housing since the beginning of the year has increased within 8%. More than 60% of the demand falls on one- and two-room apartments with an area of 32-56 m2, mainly in Soviet-era buildings in districts with a well-developed social infrastructure and good transport links.

In the central districts of the city, the price bracket for the most demanded apartments ranges from $600 to $800 per m2.

"In the secondary, as well as in the primary market, a slight increase in the cost of apartments is expected by the end of the year, because it is the high demand that drives the prices up. The maximum rise in prices for secondary housing will not exceed 2%, and that may also indicate a gradual stabilization of prices," the expert explained.

Lutsk: Apartments in new buildings are already sold out

Since the beginning of the year, apartments in new buildings of the economy and comfort class in Lutsk have grown in price by 10-15%: the cost of housing ranges from 16,500 UAH/m2 to 27,000 UAH/m2. There is the greatest demand for apartments with an area of 50-70 m2.

"At the beginning of October, there are practically no vacant apartments in the buildings that have been put into operation. Buyers, first of all, pay attention not to the price, but to how the developers take care of the territory adjacent to the residential complex, to the architectural solutions of the residential complex, apartment layouts, the availability of parking, social facilities (kindergartens, schools, and shops), and good transport links, " Rostyslav Ganeichuk, Chairman of the Volyn regional department of ARESU, noted.

According to him, in addition to high demand, an increase in the construction prime cost and an increase in wages are important factors in the growth of prices in the primary market of Lutsk. However, the main thing for developers in the coming months will not be to cover their own construction costs, but to maintain a stable demand.

"The price of housing should reflect the real purchasing power of citizens. They are not interested in the developers' costs, whether they are increasing or not. First of all, buyers are concerned about whether they will have a real opportunity to purchase housing. Developers understand this, so it is unlikely that prices will change significantly by the end of the year," the expert said.

In the secondary market, the cost of housing increased smoothly from January to September, as a result, the price of a meter in the "secondary housing" increased by 8-10%.

"The demand for one- and two-room apartments is high in all regional centers of the country. Lutsk is no exception. During the year, the popularity of small-sized apartments of the Soviet period amounted to more than 60% of the total demand in the secondary market," Ganeichuk stressed.