Russian revolution makes buying process easier

Registration of property ownership has been made a little easier although the process is still ‘horrendously laborious’, a specialist in Russian mortgages has told Residential Landlord.

The change involves standardisation of the process by the Federal Agency for Registering Real Estate so that local authorities all demand the same documents. Until now overseas property investors have been obliged to meet varying demands for information, depending on where the property is being registered.

‘Now the documents that are required will be the same in Vladivostok as in Kaliningrad’, deputy director of the registration agency, Sergei Yeremin, told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Foreign citizens buying property will now have to provide their passports and visas, migration cards and residency permits proving they are entitled to be in the country. In return they will receive a certificate confirming their right to buy property in Russia.

Mortgage4Russia.com said property values were rising sharply – up to 103 per a year – and that investors prepared to take on the complexity of the Russian market were profiting greatly.

Moscow and to a slightly lesser extent St Petersburg are the places to be – with St Petersburg, set to become the admin centre of the country, catching up fast. Apartments can be bought for around £50,000, with mortgages available for 80 per cent or more in some cases. Interest rates are around 12 per cent.

‘The trouble is the banks are not standardised in their requirements either’, said a Mortgage for Russia spokesman. ‘They all have different criteria and you need to know where to look. But there are still independent local banks and some of these will have better deals than larger organisations’.