Hi Everyone,

RBC, one of the most influential Russian business daily, recently has published a long summary of the Russian buyers of international real estate activities in 2020 under covid restrictions and some prognosis for 2021 (based on the data of a large international realty with offices in Russia and all over the world).

Here are the major take-aways for you in English:

- 2020 results for the Russian buyers of real estate abroad differ for various countries depending on each country's reaction to the pandemic (limitations on travel, support for real estate and travel industries, adaptation of developers, etc.). Although some analytics had predicted the crash of real estate sales during the pandemic, but life shows the opposite as in many world locations the demand and prices are up (China, Europe, North America).

- The reasons for growing sales are the following: many realtors and developers have adapted to the new travel bans and arranged online closings of real estate deals; to avoid the travel bans the Russian buyers are even more active on the markets of those countries that offer right-of-living or citizenship for foreign buyers of properties priced above some amount; with more work-from-home situations many buyers look for larger properties in ecologically better locations.

- Some developers have made changes to their projects (like building-in a home office with wi-fi), while some have stopped new projects all together - and this might end up in lack of suitable properties as soon as the pandemic waves would go down.

- In Russia they manufacture their own covid vaccines and do not restrict traveling out for their citizens, but you have to check with your own country's authorities on local restrictions on traveling in, before making your decision on marketing to Russians (viewing and closing online only? or visiting allowed?). Keep in mind that in some countries (maybe yours too?) foreigners are allowed to enter without restrictions or to come to receive medical treatment, for example, etc. Anyway, such situations might be highly liquid depending on the local restrictions in your area.

- The article resumes with 3 types of international properties in demand from the Russian buyers in 2021: 1). residential properties for living, immigration status and investing; 2). industrial properties (with e-commerce growth warehouses are in demand) and food retail; 3). hotels and resorts with potential.

To your best business success,

Sincerely,