Monday, April 22 2013 21:15
Member of State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre: Exclusive housing market has outlived its usefulness
ArmInfo. The exclusive housing market in Yerevan has outlived its usefulness because of having no space and potential, Head of the Real Estate Registration Department of the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre Hakop Martirosyan told ArmInfo during the Realtor of the Year 2012 competition on Saturday.
"All that could be built in the center of Yerevan has been built and all that could be sold has been sold. The newly-built apartments in the Center community, especially in Byuzand, Arami streets and Northern Avenue have already been sold. We still have some potential areas left, but no construction is being carried out there, so, we can hardly expect higher activity on the high-class housing market. Some projects are near completion, but this will not change the general picture, especially as most of the high-class apartments are already sold," Martirosyan said.
"The apartments were bought by both local citizens and Diaspora Armenians. The key buyers of housing today are middle-class citizens, who can afford borrowing and repaying mortgage loans. Most of them are young families," Martirosyan said.
"Our mortgage market is actively developing as people prefer borrowing mortgage loans to spending own money. Almost 90% of high-class apartments in Yerevan were bought on an installment basis, with most of them pledged to banks as security," Martirosyan said.
In the country the demand for real estate is highest in resorts - Tsaghkadzor, Dilijan, Jermuk - with all-time high activity registered in Martuni and Tashir.
In general, the expert connects the market situation with the growth in the citizens' paying capacity and political stability in the country. "The real estate market is like a barometer measuring the socio-economic state of the country. Any problem leads to a market collapse and the real estate market growth reflects the economic stability of the country", said Martirosyan.
To note, the Realtor of the Year 2012 competition organized by MyRealty.am was held in Yerevan on April 20.
The State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre of Armenia says that the average market cost of housing in Armenia rose by 0.4% in February 2013 (5.5% growth versus Feb 2012) to 181.4 thsd AMD per 1 sq m. A total of 14,571 transactions were registered in February (46.6% growth versus Jan 2013 and 1.3% growth versus Feb 2012).
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