The most affordable housing in Russia’s large cities is in Chelyabinsk, which is a place in Ural’s region, 1,800 km from Moscow. An average Russian family would have to save all the money they earn, without spending anything, for 2-3 years to buy an apartment in 40 out of 47 largest Russian metropolises, if they were to pay cash and didn’t wish to take a bank loan.

In small regional towns and villages prices are much cheaper. Right now housing in Russia is rather affordable.

The cheapest Russian cities to buy a house

If Russians saved all the money they earned, it would take a family of 2 on average 2-3 years to buy a home in 40 out of 47 country’s largest cities, including 11 cities with the population over 1 million people, Lenta.ru reported.

For the survey analysts assumed that a family of 2 people would save their entire wages every month. Income level was evaluated based on average monthly wages statistics in respective towns. For the purposes of the investigation, the flat for purchase would be around 49 square meters (527 square feet).

City life comes at a steep price

Foreigners often assume that Russians have it easy when purchasing things, even though they earn rather low salaries by western standards. But in reality, the affordability of housing in Russia is not that high, as you might hope. Think how long would it take you to pay cash for a property if you were able to live for free and save all the money you earned. This will give you an idea how accessible is housing in Russia as compared to your local prices for real estate.

Here is the rating of Russian cities with the population over 1 million people (there are 15 of them in the country), based on the housing affordability index provided by Cian.ru.

1. Chelyabinsk tops the list for the most accessible housing. It would take only 2.1 years of saving to buy an apartment in a new building.
2. In Krasnoyarsk, the housing affordability index is at 2.2 years.
3. Omsk takes the third place with the index of 2.3 years.
4. The index is less than 3 years in Samara and Voronezh (2.4), Volgograd and Novosibirsk (2.6), Perm and Yekaterinburg (2.7), and Rostov-on-Don (2.8).
5. It would take from 3 to 4 years to buy a flat in Ufa (3), Nizhny Novgorod (3.1), Kazan (3.5) and St. Petersburg (3.7).

For Moscow, the average saving period is approximately 4 years, Cian’s survey stated. Once again, if it were a single person who wanted to purchase a 49 m2 unit, it would take twice as long. So, a single Russian girl living in Moscow would have to be provided by someone (for instance, her parents) and work full-time for 8 years to buy a small flat.

Would you be able to buy a small unit faster where you live? Comment below!

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