The processes that are going on in the real estate market of Yerevan are changing the view of the city. Five years ago, the RA city construction minister and general architecture announced that they had worked out a new plan for Yerevan constructional development. In spite of making constructions in the suburbs of Yerevan, they announced that Yerevan would not be enlarged any more. We couldn’t even imagine that the view of Yerevan would change so much because of the new multi-floor buildings that are built so close to each other. Now small block houses are being built even in Nork Marash district of Yerevan (known as a good district for summer houses). Nowadays there is a high demand for apartments in Yerevan. Some specialists of real estate market think that there are several reasons for this. First of all, it is worth to mention that constructions were stopped for about ten years after the earthquake in 1988. The second reason is that Diaspora Armenians want to buy apartments and houses in their historical motherland. The most significant group of these kinds of apartment purchasers are Armenians from Iran. Even immigration hasn’t made the demand for apartments go down. They mostly want to buy apartments in Yerevan. These last years were full of celebrations and Yerevan became a center for incoming tourism. The lodging reserves were not enough for serving them. Old hotels were not comfortable for them and the new ones were too expensive. A new business field appeared in Yerevan. A lot of people started to buy apartments for the purposes to reconstruct and give for rent to foreigners and Diaspora Armenians. According to the information of real estate agencies, these are the people that mostly buy apartments in the new buildings in the center of Yerevan. This is the business field that keeps the price for apartments high in the center. The price for one square meter territory in new buildings is about 1000-1200 dollars (maximum 1500). The price is about the same in old buildings too. Specialists say that the reason is the fact that these apartments are not intended for residing. These apartments will be reconstructed, renovated and given for rent too. People that migrated from Armenia long ago are involved in this business too. Instead of sending money to their relatives every month they have found a better solution: they buy apartments in the center of Yerevan and let their relatives give for rent and spend that money. Actually the money and the investments in the real estate market of Yerevan come from abroad. According to specialists even 60-70 % of the sum that was given to people who suffered from the earthquake was used in Yerevan.
One of the most interesting things is the fact that the banking system doesn’t play a serious role in the real estate market of Yerevan.
Mortgage credits are not developed in Yerevan. The reason is not only the high interest rate and short period to cover. There are only two companies selling apartments with mortgage credit in new buildings. The reason is the fact that most of these deals are carried out illegally, i.e. these companies fix much less prices in their contracts in order to escape from paying taxes.
There is another tendency for this market too, which we can call as a tendency for “nationalization”. For instance one of the main purchasers of apartments in new buildings are Armenians from Iran. In order to escape all possible criticisms I won’t bring any examples concerning other Diaspora representatives, while people connect the new enlargement of Yerevan suburbs just with these groups of Diaspora Armenians. According to official decisions Yerevan is now being enlarged in different directions. Now there is a tendency to build luxurious summer houses in the neighboring villages of Yerevan (Parakar, Eghvard, Jrvej, etc.). Till now this group that built luxurious summer houses consisted exclusively of state officials. Now Diaspora Armenians buy lands in villages and build summer houses for them. You may say there is no problem because some time later after the adoption of the provision regarding dual citizenship everything will be solved. But that is not the problem, it is different. The problem is that they mainly buy lands to construct houses in, which are intended for agricultural means. Now villagers sell their lands to customers for money with the hope to take care of their children so they get educated later and live better. At least they don’t have to protect agricultural lands, but this is the role of the government.
The processes that are going on in the real estate market of Yerevan are changing the view and architectural structure of Yerevan much. Yerevan is becoming a territory for summer houses, where Diaspora Armenians buy lands and construct buildings to visit Armenia in summer and rest here in their summer houses. And all this is done like they imagine and like they are.