Hi Everyone,

Looking at all political bickering recently, everybody wonders how it can affect business.

Due to the tense political situation in the world and also many incentives that Russia offers to its wealthiest citizens if they return their investment money home from abroad, some Russian investors are inclined to sell their foreign properties and buy domestic properties in Russia instead.

At the same time others are even more inclined to invest abroad… It's a personal decision for any investor… But we'd like to know the numbers! We want to assess the business outlook at marketing real estate to the Russian buyers.

No stats of such transactions are available in general, but the leading Russian business newspaper Kommersant has made an estimation, based on some partial info. In their recent article they compare the amount of trans-border transactions by private persons to and from Russia with the objective of buying-selling real estate, as the Central Bank of Russia reports.

Of course, these transactions are only a tip of the iceberg (as many invest in real estate through their companies, not privately), but they may definitely show the trend.

Anyway, according to the article in question, the private real estate "out" transactions (more than a billion dollars) have been 4 times more than the "ins" during the last year. Which means that 4 times more Russian investors prefer to purchase real estate internationally than to sell their foreign properties and repatriate the money back home to Russia.

The same article names the countries that are the most attractive to the Russian investors: England, Germany, Cyprus, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Malta.

Cyprus, politically neutral with a rather inexpensive "Golden Visa" program of citizenship and residency, is in the highest demand by the Russian investors - now 20 times more of them invest in Cyprus real estate than 10 years ago.

Note: any entrepreneurial international realtors will consider the recent situation, when some Russians want to sell, as an opportunity! Advertising in Russian their real estate services they will have more business - not only selling new properties to the Russians, but also helping some of them sell their old properties too.

To your best business success,

Sincerely,