Real estate market jump 15%
Real estate services are most popular in Almaty City (38.8% of all Kazakhstan, KZT73.16bn, + 24.3% for the year) and the capital Astana (21% of all regions, KZT39.59bn, +24.9% for the year).
The greatest increase in demand for services in the sector was registered in Aktobe region - jumping + 55.9pct for the year, to 6.05 billion tenge.
In the long-term dynamics, the volume of real estate services was steadily increasing until 2013, then the growth rate dropped in 2014 (just + 9.1% against 2013). Last year's figures recorded 6 percent growth against 2015.
The number of sales in June 2017 equaled 21,700, 7.8% higher than in May 2017 and 26.2% higher than a year earlier. The highest growth was registered as to the apartments of multiple dwelling buildings: + 29.6pct year over year, up to 14,300. Regarding individual houses, the number of transactions has increased to 7,400, 20.5pct for the year.
However, in the realtors' opinion, there is not a sharp increase and the statistics are explained by the specifics of the counting methodology. That is to say that if a new large residential complex is placed into service, then all previously concluded preliminary contracts or equity participation agreements are immediately drawn up as sale or ownership transfer agreements, affecting the statistics.
So, according to the members of the United Association of Kazakh Realtors, it is not the increasing number of secondary market transactions but the demand for primary housing and the accelerating commissioning of this housing that affect the growth rates. For instance, in June the number of applications for the purchase of housing in new buildings on Homsters.kz has grown by 20.6pct for the month and immediately by 47pct for the year. The upward trend bespeaks the recovery of the market owing to the development of public housing programs: preferential mortgage loans at 10% interest rate within "Nurly Zher" program, purchase of housing within the programs of Housing Construction Savings Bank of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan Mortgage Company.
The average prices in the housing market continue to decline. For instance, in June the prices for new housing purchase decreased by 1.5% for the year, while the slight value drop for well-furnished secondary, ill-equipped and fashionable housing was 1.7%, 0.6% and 0.4% respectively.
In contrast, rental prices are growing: + 1.7% over the year.
The number of registered real estate companies have grown 0.3 percent year over year, up to 17,300, following the results of June. Of these, operating companies are 11,700 (+ 0.1% over the year), active ones are 8,500 (2.6% over the year).