Putting hypothecary apartments for sale by local banks may bring Kazakhstan economy to collapse. That what Alexander Kalinin, Vice-president of Kazakhstan Real Estate Federation (KFN), Deputy Chairman of Council of the Kazakh Association of Appraisers reported on the press-conference.
"The biggest problem of our country today is real estate mortgages in banks. The whole market situation will depend on the way banks treat these mortgages. Banks have over 100,000 troubled, unrecoverable loans, nonreturnable apartments. They say they are ready to sell them at 10, 15, 20% discount of their market value," said A.Kalinin. In his opinion, mass marketing of hypothecary properties may ruin not only the real estate market, but Kazakhstan economy as a whole as well.
"We have come to an economically sound and reasonable price per square meter. It includes the construction cost plus narrow profit margin. Given the specificity of construction market, this margin is 15 - 20%. No company will do anything at lower profit levels," - A. Kalinin noted.
Other vice-president of KFN Serik Turzhanov claimed that Kazakhstan real estate had reached the bottom price level.
"It is no good waiting for further drop in real estate price, as the market will come to stagnation further on. But if we wait for the collapse, it will collapse. The relations currently existing on the market are dead-ended. Business activity in Kazakhstan has declined by 70%. Real estate price is going down, but no one buys it as people have to survive," – said S. Turzhanov. He also stressed that "real estate development is not just an economic issue, but a political and strategic one".