It’s been two years since the Kyiv Post published its last Real Estate magazine. But we are back in business with a comprehensive overview of Ukraine’s real estate market, both residential and commercial.
Nobody knew exactly how the property market would change when COVID-19 hit Ukraine on March 3, 2020. Many said that office life would never been the same as people worked from home, and they were right. Others said that people would invest in more spacious homes to make life easier in self-isolation, and they were right. Also, online shopping soared. It’s true that the tourism & hospitality industry underwent deep crisis, with hotel occupancy rates in 2020 sinking to 23%, perhaps a record low.
But even now, offices are leased in healthy quantities. Shopping malls keep generating profits, despite three extended lockdowns. Warehouses are seeing insatiable demand. Most hotels are hanging on for better times.
The residential sector saw record numbers of mortages taken out in 2020, as interest rates dipped to 14% and as low as 10%, a bargain compared to 20.6% in 2019.
Developers keep building. People keep buying. Businesses keep selling. In our fifth Real Estate edition, we look at how all of this is happening in a nation that suffered recession and that still battles a Russian invader and the coronavirus.
Here’s the list of our Real Estate stories:
- Home of aviation legend Ihor Sikorsky decays because of neglect, bureaucracy
- Business, government want the same — privatization of state-owned property
- Ukraine has potential to become ‘mecca for esports’ if infrastructure improves
- Ilia Kenigshtein runs coworking Creative States, ‘five-star hotel for businesses’
- Kyiv can be a safe market for brave investors, CEO of real estate agency says
- Ukraine’s affordable housing and quick, easy transactions seduce foreign investors
- Rental property business in Kyiv keeps money safe but needs capital, effort
- What can you buy for $500,000, $100,000 & $50,000 in Kyiv?
- Pandemic forces tenants to look for flexible office space as IT drives demand
- Hoteliers take big hit in 2020, rely on domestic tourists
- CBRE Ukraine’s Sergiy Sergiyenko talks changes in commercial property market
- Developers keep building malls despite coronavirus, rise in online shopping
- With relatively low interest rates, more Ukrainians can borrow for homes
The full issue is available here: Real Estate: A pandemic-proof sector?