The impact of the global financial crisis on the nascent Russian mortgage lending market, the economic downturn which has followed, coupled with the slump in prices for most of Russia’s commodity exports, have combined to push prices lower. Although the extent to which they have dropped is a matter of debate.
With widespread reports of a major slump, Dmitry Taganov, Head of the Analytical centre at Incom says most of the fall stems from the devaluation of the Russian Rouble against the U.S. dollar in the last quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009. He says that falls when expressed in Rouble terms have been much less.
