The government is working out criteria for borrowers to extend their mortgage payments for several years, Kudrin said, adding that this would likely be limited to people who have lost jobs or received a substantial cut in their salaries.

Landlords, particularly in Moscow, have slashed rents by up to 25% in a bid to keep properties let rather than falling vacant. According to the quarterly AEB Real Estate Monitor publication the cheapest places to rent apartments are in the South West or North West of Moscow where Real Estate committee members Blackwood Real Estate and Mayfair Properties reported that 1 bedroom apartments up to 60 sq meters could be rented from $1,000 a month .

In St Petersburg it was announced that developers built a record 3.2 million square meters of housing last year, but 2009 appears to be on track for more modest construction as many builders freeze or postpone projects. Figures provided by St Petersburg administration’s construction committee, indicate 500,000 square meters more than St. Petersburg city hall planned for 2008 were built. That’s an increase of over 600,000 square meters than housing constructed in 2007.

State-controlled VTB Group has sued property developer PIK Group for 2.7 billion rubles for an overdue loan in the Moscow Arbitration Court after the developer “failed to fulfill its obligations,” the bank said. Meanwhile PIK-Region, a company within PIK Group, has won an auction for the buyout of housing by the Moscow government. The tenders committee reports that the PIK subsidiary won the auction by cutting the starting price by 0.5% for 75,000 sq m of housing. PIKRegion sold apartments in houses built in the Moscow Region: 35,000 sq m in the southeast suburbs and 40,000 sq m north of Moscow at 53,730 rubles.