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Selling to Russians News: Ukrainian Buyers of International Real Estate
September 05, 2017

Hi Everyone,

Ukrainian Buyers of International Real Estate

Today we'll talk about international real estate buyers from Ukraine, what and where they buy, and how to reach them with your property for sale offer.

Ukraine is a big part of the Russian-speaking world (about 40 million people), so as a matter of fact, you do not need to care about specific Ukrainian media for advertising (although they do exist, mostly bilingual Ukrainian and Russian) and spend extra, as Ukrainians usually use the Russian internet for their international property searches. Thus, your advertising in Russian reaches Ukrainian buyers as well.

When we say "Russian buyers", we think that they come from Russia first of all, right? It's not entirely true though, as they might come from other Russian-speaking countries as well.

Let's see how many potential buyers one can reach by advertising properties for sale on the Russian internet: About 150 million in Russia and about 120 million in other countries where Russian is one of the official languages or just used widely among the population (mostly these are the countries of the former Soviet Union). Russian is only second to English by its internet coverage and growing.

It's a bit different, of course, if you want to sell international properties with the help of realtors over there in Ukraine: Then you have to pay attention to the realtor's office location (as he or she can only send you buyers who are local to their office). Thus, if your goal is to find a Ukrainian buyer, you have to look at real estate companies in Kiev, Dnepr, Odessa, Kharkov, and Lvov or other Ukrainian cities to co-broker your property for sale with you.

Why would you want to target Ukrainian buyers specifically? It depends on the type and location of your property for sale, and now we'll see what exactly Ukrainians prefer:

- Apartments and houses as a second home in the neighboring European countries of Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Due to the recent tough political situation in Ukraine, many people care about a second home for their family abroad to be able to escape to, if the situation in Ukraine worsens. They often choose the countries that are close to Ukraine geographically, culturally and language-wise. The prices in demand are mostly under 150 000 Euro.

- Vacation homes in Bulgaria and Turkey with the dual goal of vacationing under normal circumstances and escaping to, if the situation presses to do so. Although Turkey is not really culturally close to Ukraine, but it has developed a solid market of international vacation homes and welcomes buyers from everywhere. Same price range for the Ukrainian buyers as above.

- Commercial properties abroad are being sought after by Ukrainian businessmen to save their money and also to receive income in Euro (while the local Ukrainian currency is unstable and its future is doubtful).

So, if your property for sale meets any of the profiles above, you may be willing to target the Ukrainian buyers - advertising directly or contacting realtors over there to help with finding the buyer.

Just remember that the international money transfers from Ukraine to complete a purchase might be a problem for the buyer from Ukraine, so ask him (or the Ukrainian realtor cooperating with you on your sale to the Ukrainian buyers) in advance - whether he knows how to do it (there are some legal ways that business-minded Ukrainians usually use).

To your best business success,

Sincerely,

Olga Kellen,
"Anything Russian",
English - Russian Translator,
Associate member of ATA, www.english-and-russian.com
Author of the e-books for realtors and property sellers
Selling to Russians

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