Today, information about apartments, houses or land plots that are for sale or rent in a particular part of Russia can only be obtained from personal ads or special information resources. The latter sources, however, are typically available for a fee and as a rule only contain a small amount of information.
Meanwhile, as many real estate agencies are about to enter the nationwide realty services market, there is a pressing need for the establishment of a unified national databank that lists all properties offered for sale or rent in Russia.
The Miel real estate holding has proposed that such a databank be formed under the auspices of the Russian Guild of Realtors (RGR) before the end of 2008.
Other realtors have endorsed the initiative as well, pointing out that such a databank will help boost the country's real estate market.
Viktor Shchebletsov, head of Miel's Internet department, said an RGR-supervised nationwide data bank on real estate up for sale or rent could be established by the end of the current year, adding that the holding had come up with the initiative at the 11th National Real Estate Congress that took place in June 2008 in Moscow.
"We have a very good idea of how such a data bank can be created, since we have accumulated extensive experience in setting up distributed data bases (i.e., data bases integrated within one system. - Ed.) on real estate properties," he said. According to a Miel poll, 86 percent of RGR members have backed the creation of a unified nationwide data bank on real estate properties and are ready to become more involved in putting it in place.
Miel said the first version of the databank, to be formed before the end of 2008, will contain data contributed by some 50 percent of RGR members.
"A distinguishing feature of this project is that the information will be available to all - both realtors and potential buyers. It will be posted on the RGR's official web site," he said.
At the same time, Shchebletsov said that a part of the information in the nationwide data bank will only be accessible to members of the realty community.
"Information in the open domain will be free of charge, whereas access to restricted information will be regulated by the RGR," he said.
At the first stage, the databank will only comprise properties available on the secondary housing market, but then it will expand.
"In the future we are planning to include a variety of properties in it - houses, land plots, and apartments for rent," the Miel manager said.
Time and Money
Realtors say the databank can play a significant role in the evolution of the Russian real estate market.
According to Valery Varninents, marketing director at the Agent 002 real estate bureau, the establishment of an independent source of information on available properties will enable specialists to promptly access data not only on a particular property and its owner, but also on its market value and previous transactions with that property.
"We know about Miel's project and we think that the formation of such a databank will enhance the transparency of property sales and purchases, swap transactions, as well as the transparency of the market as a whole," Varninents says. "The main problem in the project's implementation, however, is its subsequent maintenance and updating, which requires huge financial and manpower resources."
Dinara Lizunova, head of Miel's PR service, says that the project is long overdue, but it will take some time - more than three years - to put such a databank in place.
"There are such factors here as coverage (the number of cities), the scope and choice of offers, the promptness of updating, an assortment of additional services, and others. It should also be understood that an online data bank will not have the capacity to immediately become a ‘federal resource,' since Internet penetration in many Russian cities is still very low," Lizunova says.
At the same time, not all realtors know about Miel's project.
"I don't know anything about Miel's initiative and so I am unable to comment, but this idea is not new: it has been around for the past 15 years or so," says Anna Lupashko, president of the Moscow Realtors Association. "It has already been put into practice in many countries so we would like it to materialize in Russia as well."
Sergei Salnis, managing director of Vesco Realty Co., says he also has never heard about the creation of an RGR-run nationwide databank on real estate properties, but he believes that it is a good idea.
"Needless to say, an integrated real estate databank is of the essence: it will help streamline the market, make it more civilized, and advance the development of the Russian real estate market as a whole," Salnis says.
Meanwhile, RGR Vice President Konstantin Aprelev said that Miel has thus far only made a verbal proposal to the guild concerning the real estate databank.
He pointed out that the matter has yet to be formally accepted for consideration by the RGR's executive agencies.
"We will be able to comment on Miel's initiative after it has been laid out in detail," Aprelev says. "We are not in a position to say anything specific, since the idea only exists in general outline."
