Hi Everyone,

The most popular and respected Russian business newspaper Kommersant asked managers of several Russian real estate agencies the same question: What Russian investors preferred in 2017? Here is a summary of their answers in English for you.

The Russian ruble stays rather low, but stable, and many Russians become more interested in investing in international properties again - actually they are twice more active than a year before.

Another factor in increasing the Russian investors' activities: due to the Western sanctions some Russian industries are growing fast (to replace the goods that were mostly imported for the Russian consumer markets before the sanctions), and the top industry managers are making big money available for investing.

Properties of interest:

Retail, offices and residential rentals. Expected ROI from 3% to 12%. Second market and at various stages of development.

Budgets to invest:

Mostly in the range of 0.5 - 5 million Euro, some smaller segment of the Russian buying market requests more expensive international properties.

Countries of interest:

Everybody agrees that Cyprus is #1 for the Russian real estate investors nowadays. Due to some new rules of taxation and the option of getting a second citizenship when acquiring a property over there, Cyprus is extremely attractive for any foreign investor. Some Russian companies even relocate their operational offices to Cyprus.

Great Britain is still very popular among the Russian investors in spite of Brexit. Some investors hope for bargains because of the rather low British pound now, and also for the future country's economy growth after Brexit.

Germany was and is one of the top countries interesting for the Russian investors as always.

Unfortunately, the demand for the U.S. investment properties has dropped among the Russian investors, as many are scared to get robbed of their properties in the country due to the recent political risks.

Of course, the article has mentioned just the most popular destinations. If you are concerned whether the Russian investors are interested in your country's property, I can perform a specific research for you.

To your best business success,

Sincerely,