Demand for new apartments has fallen to a critical low, but prices are holding. What is it connected with?

In Ukraine, for the three quarters of 2022, housing was commissioned by 44.9% lower than in the same period last year, the State Statistics Service reported. At the same time, the price per square meter is still growing. Experts say this is due to several factors.

Decline in indicators for all categories of housing construction

According to the State Statistics Service, in Ukraine for the three quarters of 2022, 4 million 825 thousand 286 m² of housing was commissioned, which is 44.9% lower than in the same period last year. At the same time, the activity of private housing construction decreased slightly - by 33.7% - to 2 million m² in the composition of single-family houses against 3 million m² a year ago, while the volume of areas put into operation in apartment buildings almost halved - 2, 8 million m² versus 5.7 million m².

6.2 thousand m² of housing as part of dormitories was commissioned, which is 72% less than in the same period last year. A total of 60,980 apartments were commissioned, which is half as much as in the same period last year. Of these, 13,206 are in single-family houses, 47,774 are in multi-apartment buildings.

According to the State Statistics Service, in the third quarter, the decline in housing acceptance slowed down to 39.2% from 54.1% in the second quarter, including for single-family houses - up to 12.8% from 48.6%, multi-apartment houses - up to 48, 4% from 57.5%.

In absolute terms, in the third quarter, 2 million 405.1 thousand m² of housing were put into operation, including 881.1 thousand m² in single-family houses, 1 million 519.7 thousand m² in multi-apartment houses, in hostels - 4.3 thousand m².

Housing prices are rising. Experts cite reasons

In Kyiv, sales of new housing fell to a historic low. Before the war, developers were reporting 150-250 purchases per month, but sales have now dwindled to around ten. Thus, the statistics of the capital's real estate market among new buildings fell 10-15 times.

At the same time, the price per square meter is growing. This is due to several factors. In particular, the reason for the rise in prices is that the cost of all types of work has increased, because materials are becoming more expensive and new supply chains need to be established. In addition, many domestic producers are no longer on the market, and their production assets are in the east or destroyed. In this regard, developers need to import building materials from abroad.

Another reason is the growing shortage of personnel. This is primarily due to mobilization. Currently, many workers in the sphere serve in the armed forces, and the work teams today are not able to perform the previous volumes of work. At the same time, the National Bank's decision to release the dollar exchange rate already in early autumn led to a gradual rise in housing prices.

At the same time, she emphasized that comfort plus class housing, housing in the “city within a city” format, is most actively becoming more expensive. Prices are also rising in polyfunctional complexes with a mix of infrastructure, where there are various hubs and co-working spaces. In addition, there is an increase in prices in those complexes where developers have taken care of generators and other power sources. At the same time, a new trend is observed - it has become important for buyers that the complex is located away from energy and other facilities that become the targets of the occupier's missile strikes.

Bereshchak also drew attention to the fact that the mass market is the worst during the war. Apartments in such complexes are practically not for sale.

The situation in Kyiv and regions

For ten months of this year, 91 new lines began to be built in Kyiv, in 2021, 154 lines of residential complexes were started for the same period. The Kyiv region, previously a multi-year record holder in the number of commissioned housing, has also reduced the number of new queues by almost four times: 55 this year against 205 last.

The Lviv region also demonstrates a decrease in the volumes of the start of construction of new buildings - 73 queues against 110 last year.

The Odessa region, despite the war, has been demonstrating active construction since April-March of this year, although with a much smaller number of new queues - 52 this year against 141 in the past.

One of the most affected regions among those actively built up before the full-scale invasion was the Kharkiv region. Only 18 queues have started there this year, against 87 last.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the drop is almost five times - from 53 in ten months of 2021 to 12 in this.

However, there are also regions that have shown an increase in new projects. These are Vinnitsa - 18 construction starts in ten months of this year against 16 for the same period in 2021, and Transcarpathian - 16 against 10, Mykolaiv - 4 this year against 2 in 2021.