Central bank: a Russian will be able to save up an apartment in eight years if he does not eat and drink

According to RIA Novosti, referring to the head of the Department of banking regulation and analytics of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Alexander Danilov, if at the end of 2019, on average, it was necessary to save for a new apartment for 6 years, now it is already 8 years - provided that the entire salary will be postponed.

"Housing affordability... it never grows. That is, on the one hand, we are raising it, due to the fact that we are making a profitable rate, but this increase in cost, it hides the advantage that a reduction in rates gives", - Danilov stated.

The preferential mortgage program was an anti-crisis measure that helped a lot, but it has its "side effects" - rising prices.

Prices on the market of new buildings and on the secondary market differ significantly.

"How many average annual salaries, if you don't drink, don't eat, just postpone everything, ... how many years a person needs to postpone in order to... buy an apartment? If at the end of 2019 it was six years at the "primary", now it is eight years. What kind of accessibility are we talking about?", - the expert stressed.

However, the preferential mortgage program, the purpose of which was to make the purchase of housing more affordable for citizens, did not meet expectations. There was no mass purchase of real estate after the introduction of the privilege. In the secondary market, the supply at the end of 2022 increased by only 7%. Prices are rising, perhaps, faster than demand. Last year, on average, they asked for 16.4% more per square meter than a year earlier, and in February 2023, the "square" rose in price by 0.9%.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is going to introduce a preferential mortgage for officials.