Demand for Real Estate in Annexed Crimea Plummets

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/business/article/demand-for-real-estate-in-annexed-crimea-plummets/522316.html

Last year Crimean property sales couldn't be officially registered at all, Volodko said, in part because Ukrainian authorities blocked the Russian government's access to the existing property registry. The Russian legal system began to operate on the peninsula in September, but this too led to new difficulties.

"Property sales in Crimea used to be processed within half an hour, now under Russian law it takes several weeks," said Oleg Kuznetsov, the head of Crimean real estate agency Yalta Real Estate.

Meanwhile, uncertainty regarding Crimea's status internationally has limited the pool of potential buyers to Russians and Crimean residents themselves.

"No foreign investor will be interested in buying property in the region until it is recognized by the rest of the world," Volodko said. "The cost of real estate in Crimea is not low enough to be worth the risk."