Property for sale in Yerevan

The growth in prices of real estate in Yerevan, Armenia.The average of price of apartments and commercial property for sale in Yerevan, set in Armenian drams, rose by 4 percent in the first half of 2008.

Some local estate agents believe that the first-half price rise was actually higher, especially in areas outside the city center, the focal point of Armenia’s ongoing construction boom. They say housing prices in Yerevan suburbs were up by at least 10 percent from the second half of last year.

Market watchers say one of the reasons for strong demand in suburb apartments is the development of mortgage lending in the country. The number of ordinary Armenians buying apartments with a mortgage has grown considerably in the last few years despite the continuing high cost of such borrowing. The mortgage lending portfolio of local banks is now estimated at 35 billion drams ($115 million).

Real estate prices have skyrocketed since 2000 not only in Yerevan, where an apartment in the city center could be worth as much as $2,500 per square meter, but other parts of Armenia.

In any real estate market, all buildings are not created equal.  The makeup of Yerevan's real estate market can be divided between two eras, and these eras define how the particular building was constructed. Nearly all the apartment buildings in Yerevan were constructed during the Soviet era.  In the city center, most of the buildings that one sees along a sidewalk were built anywhere from the 1930s through the mid 1960s.  Rarely are they more than six stories tall.  These buildings tend to have some character, such as rounded balconies, molded rooflines, higher ceilings, etc. These buildings are generally made of stone, as opposed to lower quality cement, which adds to their durability.  The fact that the outer walls are nearly two feet thick also adds to the building's strength.