Real Estate Agencies (entry)

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
REAL ESTATE AGENCIES. Until the 1880s, sale, purchase and leasehold transactions in St. Petersburg were processed by a notary, with duty paid and the exchange registered with the police. In 1880-1911, St. Petersburg's only real-estate agency operated at the office of E.A. Kopanygin and Co. (at 3 Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street); sale, purchase and rent were registered in the unified card index (with up to 40,000 addresses). In 1911, the office was reorganised into the Central Apartments Bureau. After October 1917, real estate business (sale-purchase) ceased to exist, but was temporarily resumed during the period of the New Economic Policy (1921-24). In the late 1960s, the apartment exchange system was reorganised. Apartment Exchange offices executed the legalisation of property deals. From 1991, realtor offices engaged in the sale, purchase and rental of privatised residential and non-residential premises (secondary dwellings), and the business grew quickly in St. Petersburg and its suburbs. In 1992, the Realtors Association was established. Several trade publications appeared, including the free advertisement-newspapers Iz Ruk v Ruki and Shans, and the magazines Nedvizhimost S.-Peterburga, and Byulleten Nedvizhimosti. In 1992, a computer-based registration system was introduced at the City Registration Bureau. A decree was issued on 23 November 1996 by the Russian Federation Government "On the ratification of regulations on the realty business". Real estate agencies had a common computer database, and each transaction required a contract for financial arrangements with a bank. The Kvartirny Vopros information service began operating in 1994. In 1993, there were about 150 real estate agencies in St. Petersburg; in 2003, the number grew to about 400. In 2002, real estate agencies emerged providing exclusive services in St. Petersburg (Neskuchny Sad, 175 Moskovsky Avenue, etc.). The best known are the Central Real Estate Agency (108 Nevsky Prospect), Itaka (36 Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island), and Ekoton (1 Yury Gagarin Avenue). From the late 1990s, real estate agencies dealt with flats in buildings under construction, housing cooperative societies and mortgages. The City Apartment Exchange system continues operating alongside real estate agencies.

Reference: Малинина Н. А., Яковлева Ю. А. Российский рынок жилья // С.-Петерб. панорама. 1992. № 7. С. 7; Рахматуллин А. Правовое регулирование рынка недвижимости в России // Деловой юрид. журн. 1995. № 1. С. 22-27.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Kopanygin E.A.
Bolshaya Moskovskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Bolshoy Ave of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 36
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 175
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 108
Yuri Gagarin Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Малинина Н. А., Яковлева Ю. А. Российский рынок жилья // С.-Петерб. панорама, 1992
Рахматуллин А. Правовое регулирование рынка недвижимости в России // Деловой юрид. журн., 1995