Аренда и продажа элитной жилой и коммерческой недвижимости Санкт-Петербург, Россия
Palvelut
ELIITTIASUNNOT VUOKRALLE
ASUNTOJEN MYYNTI
TOIMITILAT VUOKRATTAVANA

Analytiikka

27.09.2013 Apart-hotels as a profitable investment in Saint-Petersburg

Investment in rental housing sector and in particular in the field of apart-hotels will grow but slowly as experts say. The very concept of an " apart- hotel " is still unfamiliar to many private investors.

There are 5 apart-hotels with the apartments available for sale in St.Petersburg (that’s about 1.4 thousand apartments), three of these apartments have come to the market in 2013. In total there are 9 apart-hotels some of which are still in project. Prices per square meter in premium apart-hotels are the same as prices in residential houses of the same class, while the prices for mass market are lower by 10-15 %. For investors who have invested in such property for its further lease a payback period is about 7-8 years.

Interest of developers to apart-hotels is caused by the lack of space for housing construction. Legally, apart-hotels belong to commercial real estate; in fact it’s residential real estate. Moreover the land for apartment hotels is cheaper than for the construction of residential buildings.

The largest one out of other real estate projects in St. Petersburg today is Aparthotel YE'S. It is a part of a multifunctional complex that is being built by GK " Pioneer" in Viborgsky district near metro station Viborgskaya. The total area of the complex is 157 000 m2, as for the apart-hotel –the total area is 52 000 m2. The project is due by November 2013.

According to experts of the market the apartments in category Standard are in the great demand among the buyers. That is explained by their cost, which is lower than the average cost for a one-room apartment with similar characteristics. Thus, at the beginning of September, the minimum price of apartments was 2,650 million rubles. 85 % of buyers in apart-hotel YE’S are the investors who buy the apartment for its further lease.

Experts keep saying that the popularity of this real estate will continue to grow every year. The buyers are interested in additional advantages such as a professional management company and additional services for future tenants.

The benefits for the tenant living in the apartment hotel are quite obvious. When a person rents a room in a hotel he pays at least 3 000 rubles per day and 90 000 rubles per month. The cost of the apartment starts from 40 000 per month, and this price is not for the room of 15 m2 , but for the apartment of 30 m2.

Despite the fact that the phenomenon of the apartment buildings in St. Petersburg has a very long history (“dohodnie doma”), the revival of this tradition of profitable real estate today is considered as something new and unusual. At the moment the whole Russian market of apart-hotels is very far behind the European one. And the most important difference is the absence of any laws in terms of apartment hotels in Russia. This speaks for the difficulty of developing such projects. The situation with rented real estate in other countries is quite different. In the United States almost one-third of the population rent the apartments while in Germany - about a half of the population. European citizens prefer to rent rather than to buy property, while in most Russian cities the percentage of rental housing does not exceed 5 %. Only in Moscow and St. Petersburg it reaches 7-8% which is still far from the western targets.

A great demand for high-quality rental housing promises great prospects for this segment. There are a few apart-hotels in St. Petersburg that offer decent conditions for a long-term rent in St. Petersburg. The main advantage of apart-hotels is that the landlord doesn’t have to think about the maintenance of the apartment as it’s a job of a professional management company.

According to experts investment in rental housing sector will continue to grow. More and more buyers get interested in such property and its further lease which will guarantee a stable and long-term profit.