‘Most Russian business is done in Moscow; unlike the U.S. or Europe, this country does not have any geographical evenness; there is the official capital and the so-called cultural capital (Saint Petersburg) that is trying to be like Moscow, and there are provincial markets,’ says Alexei Mogila of Moscow-based Penny Lane Realty.

‘At the moment, regional office sales markets resemble that of Moscow a few years ago: offices are being put up at a slower pace than trade centers and shopping malls, and quite often, these are the old Soviet buildings that used to host bureaucracy that are used for offices. Yekaterinburg market, among many others, is but a fledgling right now. The profitability of the business varies greatly from one local market to another. In Moscow, for example, one can find offers of $1,800 per square meter, whereas some regional markets’ top offers do not exceed the mere $200 to $300 per square meter of more or less the same kind of office space,’ he notes.

‘Some cities with a population of over one million people actually do come up with some appealing, nice-quality projects. I believe that such offers are going to dominate the market in the future. For one, projects that have already proved efficient in Saint Petersburg will soon be implemented in Chelyabinsk and Perm,’ Mr. Mogila says.