OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian housing market is characterised by high home ownership, while housing supply per capita is just above 20 sq meters and the existing housing stock is of poor quality, the press-service of the PIK Group reports. Together with the rapid expansion of the mortgage market and the underlying favourable macroeconomic situation, these factors provide excellent market fundamentals for successful residential real estate development.

According to Rosstat, the Russian Statistics Agency, the total construction volumes for 2006 reached 50.2m sq. meters.

For the first six months of 2007, construction volumes continued to grow significantly by 34.8% and amounted to 21.2 mln sq. meters, with an expected total of 60 mln sq. meters for the whole year. Construction volumes in Moscow maintained a high level of 2,358 mln sq. meters (2006: 4.8 mln sq. meters), and volumes in the Moscow region increased strongly by 41.4% to 2,345 mln sq. meters for the first six months ended June 30, 2007 (2006: 6.4 mln sq. meters).