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Privately owned real estate in the city of Rybnitsa, in northern PMR, has doubled in value over the past year

RYBNITSA (Tiraspol Times) - In less than a year, real estate in Rybnitsa has doubled in value. But to purchase a home in this city in northern Pridnestrovie is still cheap, especially for newcomers to the region when compared to prices elsewhere in the unrecognized country or outside the country's borders.

" - Since the beginning of this year, home values have nearly doubled in the Pridnestrovian city of Rybnitsa," Valentina Povoroznyuk, director of a Rybnitsa-based real estate agency, told Barbara Nikitin from the New Region news service on Thursday.

While the bottom fell out of the home market in the United States, and prices are tumbling in a number of other countries as well, real estate in place like Pridnestrovie is budging the trend and recording strong gains.

According to Povoroznyuk, "the increase in prices is caused, first of all, by the fact that the city's inhabitants have few other alternatives available for investing their cash savings profitably."

Rybnitsa, the country's third largest city, is located in northern PMR

In early 2007, one bedroom apartments in Rybnitsa were costing less than $10,000 USD. Today, the same units can fetch as much as $20,000 each.

This amount is still cheap by international standards. In neighboring Ukraine, similar apartments routinely sell for $30,000 to $35,000 while in Moldova the price is also higher. Further away, prices go up more: In Russia, Moscow has some of the world's highest real estate values, and in cities like London or Paris, the sky is the limit. The one bedroom apartment that costs $20,000 in Rybnitsa can easily cost $500,000 in some of the better neighborhoods of the largest European capitals.

Most of Rybnitsa's apartments are built right next to the Dniester river, which forms the border with Moldova, and many of them have waterviews.

Supply and demand driving price increases

In Rybnitsa and elsewhere in the country, an increase in the number of local real estate buyers are signs of new confidence in the future of Pridnestrovie's statehood. Workers who earn their living abroad for part of the year are returning to Pridnestrovie and re-investing their savings in the new and emerging country.

" - Each autumn, a number of foreign workers return to the country, and the best way to preserve what they have earned is to buy real estate," she said. "Existing apartment owners who want to sell their real estate can see that the number of buyers increase, and they act accordingly," noted Valentina Povoroznyuk.

" - In January, a one bedroom apartment in a five-story apartment building in the center of city could on average be purchased for between eight and ten thousand dollars. Today, the same apartment costs twelve to fourteen thousand dollars," said Valentina Povoroznyuk.

Larger homes in more sought-after parts of the city have seen even higher increased. According to the real estate agency director, "apartments in the city-block South Park have the most demand because none of the buildings in that area are older than 20 years. The current price for a one bedroom apartment reaches eighteen to twenty thousand dollars."

With 82,000 inhabitants, Rybnitsa is home to the third largest population in Pridnestrovie, after the capital Tiraspol (159,000 people) and Bender (105,000 people).

Rybnitsa is also home to the MMZ Steel Works, the most modern steel foundry enterprise in the territory of the former Soviet Union. The privately owned company exports nearly 2,000,000 tonnes of crude and rolled steel products every year and has a Lloyds of London certification. (With information from New Region)

See also:
» 74% of all Tiraspol homes are now private property [1]
» Transdniester middle class voters form Home Owners Associations [2]
» In Rybnitsa, PMR, country's largest mega-church opens [3]

On the web:
» Visit Rybnitsa [4]