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Sergei Georgievskii, Co-founder and Chair of the Expert Council, Agency for strategic development "CENTER", spoke to Moskovskaya Perspektiva about changes in Moscow’s land market. According to NF Group, around 60-80 hectares of land within the Moscow Ring Road, with a combined value of approximately RUB 150 billion, could come onto the market in the coming years.

One factor is the generational shift among major landowners. The heirs of those who accumulated their assets in the 1990s and early 2000s often work in other sectors and have little interest in continuing to manage landholdings.

“They are more interested in emerging sectors such as the experience economy, the sharing economy and advanced technologies. They prefer to own intellectual property, digital assets and services, and seek to monetise their parents’ land assets more quickly in order to invest in these sectors,” said Sergei Georgievskii.

According to the expert, a further challenge is that many sites were never supported by a comprehensive development concept. As a result, inherited land becomes an asset that entails maintenance costs, tax liabilities and compliance with an increasingly detailed regulatory framework.

Moscow’s land market is also being shaped by the integrated territorial development mechanism. The city is playing an increasingly active role in consolidating and developing sites, while the risk of land being included in an integrated development programme gives owners an additional incentive to determine a strategy for its future use or sale in advance.

Sergei Georgievskii also highlighted the prospects of less prestigious sites on the outskirts of the city and in former industrial areas.

“Less prestigious sites on the periphery and within the ‘rust belt’, where utilitarian architecture with no historical value predominates, will be comprehensively redeveloped through the integrated territorial development mechanism,” the expert noted.

Where owners have been unable to establish effective cooperation with the city, the authorities can consolidate sites and develop new scenarios for their future use. As a result, former industrial and underused areas can become new centres of activity for developers and residents.

The transformation of Moscow’s land market reflects a broader shift away from holding land as a passive asset towards the integrated development of territories based on a clear urban planning, economic and functional model.

The full article and Sergei Georgievskii’s comments are available in the Moskovskaya Perspektiva publication: “Muscovites Are Offloading Land”.