Hi Everyone,

We all know Russian buyers are not that many roaming the world looking at international properties now... But yet - how many are around?

It's a rare occasion when a Russian real estate company shares their sales numbers, but I've found one that did, and the numbers for the last 5 years are as follows (a year/previous year ratio in %):

2011/2010: + 40% (up)

2012/2011: + 70% (up)

2013/2012: - 70% (down)

2014/2013: - 60% (down)

2015/2014: + 20% (up)

The max sales amount for this one Russian real estate company selling international properties from many countries in Russia was Euro 727 million in their fattest year of 2012, the min was Euro 291 million at the bottom in 2014, and for the last year of 2015 there is a modest growth again.

If we work under the assumption that the numbers above are typical and due to the economic and political situation (not due to some good or bad work of the employees), than we can say that probably the environment gets better: the oil prices hit the bottom and go up, and so does the ruble, and so does the mood of Russian buyers of international real estate.

This spring the company we are talking about (by the name of Freedom) is hosting an event at their headquarters: a Florida developer comes to Moscow to make a presentation of a luxury condo project in Sunny Isles Beach. Seems like a major selling point of the project is the possibility to rent the units out up to 12 times a year which is a rarity in South Florida condo industry, and allows the new owners to recoup their investments receiving the rental income in the U.S. dollars - important to Russian buyers nowadays! The unit prices range from $1 million to $5 million depending on the size and type in this building.

The latest review of the Russian buyers of international properties from the leading Russian business newspaper Kommersant confirms: "Russians do invest in international properties, but now more than ever they aim at return-on-investment numbers, not buying just for pleasure as in the past."

To your best business success,

Sincerely,