Nina Kreslavskaya: «We are working without «Construction race»

Spring is the time of revival of the business activity at the construction market.
Developers are hoping to increase the pace of sales, and buyers are expecting for discounts and launches of new projects. Whether these expectations will come true, we asked Nina Kreslavskaya, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of RosStroyInvest Group.

— Mrs Kreslavskaya, the amendments to Federal Law 214, coming into force this summer, made developers hurry up with getting construction permits for new projects. Do you expect the short-term overstocking and price fluctuations?
— Indeed, many developers are in a hurry to bring new projects to the market. Most likely by the beginning of this summer we will indeed see the increase of the new projects amount. However, we believe that the market capacity is quite high, and it is unlikely that the situation will lead to serious overstocking and decrease of prices. Amendments to Federal law 214 will eventually lead to the price increase for consumers. The costs for a number of critically important for developers issues, Including the cost of money resource, will go up. Developers are not to implement the projects at a loss, so the prices will go up.
In fact, the current situation is quite understandable. We have already seen it in 2016, when a large number of new objects were launched at the market simultaneously. Developers began to reduce prices, worked at a minimum level of profitability, and someone even below this level. This led to the bankruptcy of some developers. These were rather large companies. I'm not sure that anybody will want to repeat this path again. Perhaps, the pace of sales will slow down somewhat, but this will not lead to stagnant or crisis phenomena.

— And what will be the reaction of the market towards the cancellation of “shared construction”?
— Time will show, but it will not lead to lower prices either. The high price of the bank credits will eventually be included in the price of living square meters consumers. "Shared construction" is beneficial for both sides, for consumers, developers. It was a good tool that helped our market grow and develop all previous years. Developers will be forced to act on a different, much more expensive and regulated business scheme. Without transparency of business processes simple copying of the ideas existing in Europe may cause real difficulties. But in Europe there are no such volumes of construction, and there is no such need for providing the population with comfortable housing.

— Is the situation of 2016 different from today's?
— The most important difference of the current day is a cheaper mortgage. Today, the AHML rate fell to 6.7%, and according to the presidential program for families with the second child — up to 6%. The buyers have more opportunities.

— Will "RosStroyInvest" join the new market trend of "construction race"?
— We do not have a task to overfulfill the plan. Currently, we are working on several new projects, and this year we will, of course, announce the release of new projects. But this is not the race. This is just a normal work.

— Then let's talk about already known projects. Your next project on the Blucher’s Prospect, as already mentioned, will differ architecturally from your previous projects. What is the reason for this decision?
— We are now working on the design and layout of this new project. We work on details of its future architectural appearance. Indeed, this will be for us a fundamentally new and modern project in terms of architecture. We take all the best from the best practices in creating comfortable dwelling houses. For us this is another step forward. Most likely, we will start selling this complex next year. I would like to remind you that we are already building another project in this area. It is named "Suvorov” after famous Russian general field marshal.

— Please tell us about the progress of your Moscow project.
— Now our Moscow project is passing state expertise, and we hope that by the summer of this year we will be able to open sales. This is a premium-class project, it has a unique architecture and layout. To the creation of the project we attracted the famous in Moscow architectural bureau "Meganom" headed by Yuri Grigoryan.

— Nina Abramovna, and finally the question, timed to the celebration on March 8. By this date, "Business Petersburg" Newspaper traditionally publishes the list of the most influential women of the city in various business sectors. This year you are nominated. How important is it for you?
— This award is interesting because it covers the most influential women of the city not only in various business sectors, but also in politics and other spheres of activity. And the main criterion is a positive impact on the urban environment. This award is important not only for me but for the whole RosStroyInvest group. In general, of course, it is very pleasant to get this nomination, especially in such a difficult and unfeminine sphere as construction.