Experts expect stability in the building materials market in 2023

In 2023, neither a grandiose growth nor a fall in prices is expected in the Russian building materials market. This opinion was expressed to Stroygazeta by Sales Director of Rockwool Russia Maxim Tarasov.

“As in many other industries, a lot depends on government support. Now, after extending the preferential mortgage program until 2024, we are waiting for a partial recovery in demand for real estate, and this, accordingly, will have a positive impact on the building materials market. The commercial real estate market, I think, will continue its development in 2023 in line with the trend of consumers moving online. Accordingly, the business will be reformatted in connection with new trends,” he said.

Summing up the year, Maxim Tarasov noted that by the end of 2022, the building materials market had stabilized. According to him, after a feverish increase in sales in 2021 and a sharp drop in May-June 2022, the situation in the industry has almost returned to normal. “The impact of the sanctions crisis and the departure of foreign brands turned out to be less pronounced than in some other sectors of the economy, and manifested itself mainly in a change in consumer behavior,” the expert said.

So, according to the results of the survey "ROCKWOOL Russia", almost half of the consumers of building materials have changed their approach to their purchase and choice. Almost one in five now chooses domestic materials, and some have abandoned foreign-made goods. Serious changes have also taken place in relation to the sites for the purchase of goods in the construction industry. Many consumers have moved online and in particular to marketplaces. In addition, construction markets have become more popular.

If we talk about market development trends, the experts of ROCKWOOL Russia called the increase in the number of apartments with finishing in developer projects the first significant trend - so that after the purchase, new residents can immediately move in and live without spending money and time on repairs.

Another trend set by large cities is the unification of the place of residence and work. Integrated development must include not only kindergartens, schools and other infrastructure, but also office space so that people do not have to travel to work across the city. Some new buildings already have co-working spaces - common areas where you can connect to the Internet, sit and work on a computer.

The third trend is the construction of energy-efficient and smart buildings, structures with a reduced load on engineering systems. Spot development in large cities in one way or another implies a reduction in the consumption of water and electricity, since the load on the networks is already prohibitive, and not everywhere there is an opportunity to build an ordinary apartment building.

In addition, it is noted that the consumer is becoming more demanding and pays attention to the comfort of living. He is concerned not only with the cost of the apartment, the interest on the mortgage, but also, for example, issues of acoustic comfort - how well the accommodation meets the requirements in terms of audibility, extraneous noise.

In commercial real estate, an important trend has been the transition of consumers to online. This year, the trend has intensified, and people's going online has affected the business of shopping centers - they have become very empty. Already, shopping centers are practically not being built, but there are many new distribution centers, warehouses for organizing and sorting online orders.

Source: https://stroygaz.ru/