Yekaterinburg commercial estate market’s major problem at the moment is that a balance needs to be struck between the realty introduced and the demand backed by the adequate paying capacity. Despite the bankers’ claims to the contrary, the lending practice has not fully recovered yet. For one, no loans are offered for project financing. The buildings that do get finished in Yekaterinburg right now are the ones that were projected and planned long ago. Virtually no new projects are being launched,’ plenipotentiary representative of the Management Companies & Developers Guild in Yekaterinburg Andrei Bril said at a meeting with Vice Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Consumer Market Viktor Konteev.

Bril said the years 2009-2010 had been the years of rent dumping attempts.

‘Rent is now being increased everywhere around Yekaterinburg due to the fact that the areas available earlier used to be let at prices below prime cost. We do hope no deficit of payments or a rent bubble are to be expected. However, I’m not sure about the commissioning of all the buildings that are supposed to be commissioned in 2011,’ he added.

For one, Bril is uncertain about Filitz Business Center at 188 Lunacharsky St and AVS Business Center at 99 Mamin Sibiryak St meeting their deadlines.

‘What’s more, we do not understand what the larger developers such as UMMC are going to do next. It’s also important to see how Vysotsky Business Center goes, since no one can say how its launch is going to change the market. It is actually altogether unclear whether the skyscrapers have any future at all. Moreover, we cannot say just now whether we need such buildings after all,’ Bril noted.