How much an office cost?
One would think that nothing is as easy as selling or leasing real estate if one has some. For instance, leasing space for a foreign company's office seems to be rather simple. But a series of difficulties appear when one take the first steps. What is a real price for space? Who will prepare all the necessary documents? How should one negotiate and with whom?
Experts suppose that in such cases one should call a reliable consulting company, such as Russian Real Estate for example. (...) It is managed by Arnaud Leclercq. Today, he is answering our correspondent's questions.
- Your company's activity is consulting in real estate and investments. It means you are an intermediary between the landlord and those people who wish to rent a building or a part of it, isn'tit?
- That is the essence of our work, but at the same time it is only a small part of it. The legal department of our company deals with everything concerning real estate, except construction and rebuilding. But is necessary, we find a construction firm and prepare a contract with it. Besides, we give consultations to potential investors on financial matters and make examinations of leasing buildings. And the main thing is that our company watches the
development of the real estate market and can make it clear for the customers.
- How can you estimate the real estate market in Russia now? What is specific about it?
- I will speak about the Moscow micro-market. It is already possible to work here rather efficiently. Due to privatisation, a lot of suitable buildings for leasing have started to appear out of the UPDK system. However, my dream of dividing Moscow into zones with their own prices per sqm is not practicable yet. All big western cities are divided into such zones. In Moscow, prices per sqm for buildings that can be next to another can have a difference of $200/sqm/year.
The reason of this is the lack of privatised premises and the absence of the Moscow business centre. Possibly in the future there will be an opportunity to distinguish such ones inside the Garden Ring in the direction from the centre to the airport.
- The lessors, probably, take advantages of the instability of prices, aren't they?
- Sure, usually they ask for an excessive price. But the lessees, for their part do not want to overpay. Firms like ours help to keep the balance between this discrepancy.
