UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 27, 2016. Downward trends persist on Yekaterinburg commercial estate market, Ural Real Estate Chamber reports.

‘The letting market and the buying market are reacting differently to the dropping demand. The average shop’s rent declined by 4% in the first three months of the year, while that of an office went down by 5%. At the same time, owners willing to sell their property are not so eager to reduce their asking price. It appears not all the sellers actually realize what the current situation is like and what may happen next,’ says the chamber’s analyst Mikail Khorkov.

Khorkov says there is now over 100,000 m2 worth of commercial estate on offer on the new estate market alone, which is a record-setting figure for Yekaterinburg. The supply keeps going up while the discrepancy between the rental and the selling prices follows suit. Some customers’ market behavior looks rather puzzling: whereas certain developers are trying to sell their space to end users with the help of price discounts, others still go on about ‘lucrative investment’ and raise their asking price despite zero sales. In the meantime, the retail trade turnover figures keep going down and shops keep going into liquidation.