The average sale price for residential housing in Moscow is currently 161,784 rubles ($6,900) per square meter, while the average building cost is just 34,692 rubles ($1,480), according to a survey by the Federal Construction and Housing Maintenance Agency, published on its web site.
Since 2005, sale prices for a square meter of residential housing have climbed 140 percent while construction cost went up only by 64 percent, the report said.
Developers generally concurred with the survey's findings, but many said the huge disparity was the result of a combination of official fees and unofficial payments, a euphemism for bribes, to officials and government structures.
