Tens of thousands of buildings and other objects were destroyed during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the most modest calculations, we are talking about tens of millions of square meters of housing, which is subject to restoration, and such an amount that, unfortunately, it is impossible to restore. And for Ukraine to be able to return to normal life, it is necessary not only to defeat the enemy in battles, but also to start the construction business again as soon as possible, rebuilding destroyed or damaged housing.
The broadcast of the "First City TV Channel" was dedicated to this problem, on which invited experts presented their vision of what is happening in the construction business and ways of its development.
Olena Ovchinnikova, head International expert club and the founder of the rating agency EliteExpert, told about the global marketing sociological research of the construction market, which has been conducted by dozens of experts over the past year.
"On August 10, based on the results of the study, we will present the "Rating of sustainability of construction companies of the Odesa region". This rating is primarily aimed at ordinary Ukrainians - someone was left homeless due to the war, someone invested the last funds in real estate a few years ago, and construction has stopped, someone is thinking about buying a home - everyone needs to understand what is currently happening in the construction sector, where to go to invest your funds, and where to be careful, and more globally, what awaits this field in the future," said Olena Ovchinnikova.
"As part of the research, we studied a huge layer of builders existing in the country — our long-list includes more than 120 construction companies and thousands of residential complexes. The study is very extensive; it is quite difficult for an ordinary person to figure it out, so we involved many different specialists in the process. They developed the criteria, studied the market and give their recommendations so that ordinary people can navigate in this whole massif," the expert emphasized.
In turn, real estate market research expert Vitaliy Serbulenko stated that the main difference between this rating and similar ones is that the priority is not the construction companies themselves, but the consumers, and the quality was not the quantity, but the quality was studied in the first place.
Each of the rating experts studies the companies, their compliance with the stated criteria, then all the processed information is combined and a final expert survey is conducted.
When the rating is fully formed, it will become clear which construction companies look to the future quite confidently, which companies' fate is in doubt, and which developers potential investors should stay away from.
"Among our experts are managers of construction companies from all over Ukraine, as well as officials, journalists, lawyers, notaries, representatives of real estate companies, housing investors themselves: that is, all those people who are directly related to the construction market and influence it in one way or another and they know this field professionally," said Olena Ovchinnikova.
During the conversation, the presenter of the program, construction market expert Ruslan Drozdov raised another important topic - how the current traumatic experience of the war has radically changed the needs of buyers and, accordingly, the construction industry throughout Ukraine. If earlier, for example, huge panoramic windows were in great demand, now people understand that in case of "arrival" these windows will break into small pieces and injure the owner. Also, the priority will clearly not be high-rise buildings, where, according to statistics, missiles or drones fall more often, and preference will be given to low-rise buildings.
In addition to modern conveniences, Ukrainians also began to pay special attention to the safety of residential buildings, in particular, the presence of bomb shelters or underground parking lots that can be adapted for these functions.
"In our research, we want to convey to all builders and developers that a new era in business is approaching, when it is necessary not to sell what has already been built, but to adapt to the changing needs of Ukrainians and build objects that will meet people's demands. Moreover, if you give people what they want to buy, and not what you have lying around somewhere, the first will sell much faster than the second," Vitaliy Serbulenko emphasized.
"If earlier, before the war, the market in Odessa was very stable - no matter how much and what you built, it was still bought, because people wanted to live "by the sea", establish themselves, buy some real estate here - and the consequence of this was a peculiar snobbery of the construction business. Now everything has changed.
And if since the beginning of the war, the construction business fell into the most difficult conditions and actually stopped, now we see a gradual revival of this market, the business wants to live. For the most part, the representatives of the construction business in Odesa are quite socially responsible — big business is responsible for what it does, and no one deliberately builds low-quality, dangerous housing "made of reeds" that will easily and quickly collapse," said Olena Ovchinnikova.
Experts also discussed the factors that should be paid attention to in the first place by people who, even in such difficult conditions, are thinking about buying a home. In their opinion, first of all, it is necessary to look at the openness of the company: are its owners public, or are they some names without past and present. The investor has the right to know who exactly is building his house. It is necessary to monitor whether the technological terms of construction are violated, and if the terms are violated strongly (even making a discount for the war), this is already a cause for concern. Ideally, collect information on how much money was collected from investors by the developer, how much of the paid square meters was built - this percentage ratio is the most important.
"During the research, we encountered the main difficulty - obtaining financial reports from companies. It is almost impossible to understand their financial situation, so you can operate only with the data that they provide themselves. Of course, financial reports border on commercial secrecy, and this adds certain difficulties to experts," noted Olena Ovchinnikova.
As for the future of the domestic construction market, here the experts are unanimous - this field, in any case, is stagnant. Someone will, of course, leave the market, but most of the serious companies will definitely remain, especially since there will be a lot of work for them in post-war Ukraine.
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