Mortgages have long been the only way to acquire affordable housing in Russia, a country with exorbitantly high real estate prices and over half of the people unsatisfied with their housing. Having shown considerable progress, the system is about to be confronted with the consequences of the global economic slowdown. The impact of Russia’s mortgage crisis will not be nearly as severe as the one in the United States, where mortgages amount to over 60 percent of the GDP compared to just two percent in Russia. But still, the local banks’ new approach to issuing mortgages and rapidly declining incomes will put an end to affordable housing in Russia for a very long time.
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