According to the European Association of Realtors (CEPI), the cheapest housing among European capitals is now in Vienna, Vilnius and Budapest (€ 700 – 800 per 1 sq. m), the most expensive – in Rome, Paris and Copenhagen (€ 11.5 – 15 thousand). Moscow in the CEPI review is not analyzed, Russian estimates of the average price per square meter for Moscow in the amount of € 3 – 3.5 thousand give an idea of the place of the capital in the ranking. CEPI, however, analyzes real estate prices, which are relatively rare for Moscow – for large two-bedroom apartments (three-room apartments) built after 1997.
There are not so many cities in Europe where housing prices start at € 3 thousand: Copenhagen, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm and Luxembourg (data on London in the review are not given). In most other European capitals, citizens have access to housing cheaper than € 2 thousand per 1 sq. Meter. In the country’s second largest city, prices, according to CETI, start at about € 500 per 1 sq. m in Eastern Europe and from € 1,5 – 2 thousand – in Western Europe. In most capitals, the minimum price per square meter is close to the average salary – probably, labor and housing markets are balanced at this level. For Moscow, this rule does not work.
If the minimum real estate prices reflect only the affordability of housing, then the “plug” of prices for it is the dynamism of development. In most European capitals, apartment prices vary by 2 – 7.5 times. In this case, CEPI does not consider prices for exclusive housing – it is a question of a “fork” of prices for the same type of housing, demonstrating the variation in the state of the infrastructure of a particular territory, the prestige of the location of the house, and the presence of problem areas in the city. In terms of these indicators, Moscow looks closest to Rome and Paris with their anomalous spread in prices, which sharply differs from the much more homogeneous capitals of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
This post is also available in:
English 
Русский (Russian)
