REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS IN ARMENIA GREW 65% IN FEBRUARY
HULIQ.com
Armen Hareyan
April 14 2010
SC
The real estate companies and the consumers seem to be waiting for
better times, but February transaction numbers are stunningly good.
According to the official statistics in February of 2010 there has
been 13,400 real estate transactions in Armenia. This number is 30.4%
higher than the February of 2009 and presents 65 percent increase
from January 2010 transactions.
However, Hakob Baghdasaryan, the president of one of the largest real
estate firms in Armenia Akcern, says the public and the companies
are in the waiting mode. They need at least another six months to
fully realize that the recession is over in Russia and USA. He tells
Panarmenian News Agency that in the past three months they see some
minor declines of transactions in their company.
Although Armenian Government’s Real Estate agency reported increased
transactions in property markets the prices have not gone up
significantly. In the capital Yerevan the price per one square meter
has gone up by 0.02 percent.
The real estate prices in Armenia have stayed relatively stable in the
past few years despite the recession. This is explained by the active
intervention by the government, which gave guarantees to builders
and mortgage providers. For example, in one program the government
of Armenia subsidized the mortgage rates by 2 percent and encouraged
the banks to provide mortgages at much lower rates to young families.
According to that plan the government supported the young families
finding cheap sources for home loans and subsidized those loans by
paying the banks 2 percent of the loan rate.