This format allowed the professionals not only to exchange experience with colleagues and learn more about the market specifics, but also to present their properties to a wide range of potential buyers.

The organizers have set two tasks for the Forum. The first was fulfilling the needs of property market actors. These are: the need for information on market conditions, opportunity to exchange experience and access to new working technologies. The second task is important for the market as a whole: it is necessary to establish civilized, transparent relations in the domain of overseas property. The forum gradually becomes a platform where brokers, developers, governmental representatives and the media can work together in order to develop the cooperation standards between Russian and foreign companies, to assess the current state of the market, identify topical destinations for work and development.


The Second Forum

The INFOREAL is a joint project of the Group of Companies “Bulletin of Real Estate”, one of the leading media holdings in the North-Western Russia, and the “Prian.ru – International Property” portal - a leader among the topical Russian media. INFOREAL is the Russia's only event dedicated to property market that is of such scope and level.

The INFOREAL Forum was supported by various professional associations from Russia (Moscow and Moscow region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Perm, Kostroma, Petrozavodsk, Krasnodar, Ivanovo and Volga Region), Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, Latvia, Ukraine and Poland, as well as by international organizations – FIABCI and CEREAN. Compared with the first INFOREAL, the number of partners has multiplied by one and a half time.

The heads of four diplomatic missions in St. Petersburg - Consul Generals of Turkey, Spain, Cyprus and Finland have joined the Supervisory Board of the Forum. The Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany has saluted the INFOREAL - the Consul of Germany for Economic Affairs has addressed the International Overseas Property Congress. Participants agree that the consulates’ support has become the guarantee of effective dialogue between Russian and foreign participants, and is one of the reasons for its success.

The second INFOREAL Forum has been held simultaneously with the largest event dedicated to Russian property - Civil Housing Forum, which is also organized by the Group of Companies “Bulletin of Real Estate”. It has attracted the attention of domestic real estate professionals to foreign property domain. A seminar “Advertising Russian and foreign property in the Web: New Opportunities” has been held within the framework of Civil Housing Forum on October, 1 and became a sort of a prologue to the INFOREAL.

The International Overseas Property Congress has been held on October, 2 at the “Park Inn Pulkovskaya” Hotel. The event was attended by over 250 professionals from Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Cyprus, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Egypt, Britain and other countries. The Congress was visited by the heads of APEMIP, Association of Portugal Realtors, who have signed a cooperation agreement with Russia Guild of Realtors on the plenary meeting.

The Congress has been opened with a plenary meeting, after that the work in sections, round tables and seminars were conducted. The interest of market professionals was focused on the current situation on global property markets, especially on the work of a realtor on the overseas property market, and on the peculiarities of a Russian buyer. The seminar “Technologies of overseas property promotion for Russian buyer” has been held at full audience, lively debates were conducted at the round table “Choosing an overseas property market”. Upon the completion of the business agenda, INFOREAL participants have not only highlighted the topicality of discussed topics, but also the high level of organization.

Also on October, 2, the Annual National Contest in Property, Construction and Mortgage Lending – CREDO has been conducted as a part of the INFOREAL International Real Estate Forum and Civil Housing Forum. For the first time in the contest’s history, the organizers have introduced the nomination for the best Russian brokerage organization, working on overseas property market. The Moscow-based company “BEST-Nedvizhimost” has received this award.

An Overseas Property Exhibition has been conducted on October, 3-4, at one of Saint-Petersburg’s largest showrooms - Ledoviy Dvorets. The event has gathered nearly 50 companies from around the world; specialists have conducted 12 seminars for the customers. The event has attracted many visitors, citizens of St. Petersburg. Within two days the Exhibition has been attended by over six thousand people. Exhibitors have noted that in comparison to the preceding event, the number of target customers has increased.

Topical seminars on overseas property have been held at full audience. This speaks for the willingness of potential buyers from St. Petersburg to acquire the information. The interest of Petersburgers has been noticed by the experts of an overseas property Consultation Center, which has been operating on the Exhibition for two days, giving all necessary answers on visitors’ questions. The growing demand for information demonstrated by potential buyers has been also noticed by the representatives of companies working on the exhibitory stands.

A printed reference book, prepared by the organizers has also become a reliable source of information. The guide included all key information on overseas property markets, buying procedures, visa and financial issues. The circulation has been fully given out within the first day and the half.


A new epoch on the market

A constructive dialogue among market participants has been established already at the plenary meeting. Diplomats and representatives of business community were eagerly answering questions asked by the audience. The speakers have agreed that foreign property market remains active, despite the global financial crisis.

In particular, Consul General of the Kingdom of Spain in St. Petersburg, Mr. Francisco Pascual de la Parte has highlighted that the crisis has had a positive impact on Spanish property market, and filtered out all the “one-day companies”. The Consul General of Turkey in Saint Petersburg, Mehmet Cinar said that the effective Turkish legislation will soon include the laws that would significantly simplify the procedure of buying local property for foreigners. Consul for Economic Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany in St. Petersburg, Max von Hahn has pointed out that the INFOREAL Forum has been held for the second time, which indicates the Russian buyers’ vivid interest in foreign property.

“The foreign property market is developing!” Mikhail Kelim, co-chairman of the INFOREAL Forum Organizing Committee, Prian.ru project manager, said in his report. “For example, Russians one of the most active investors in European commercial property, and every tenth buyer of luxury property on Cote d'Azur is a Russian. Figures are good, and it has become more complicated for the agents to conduct their business”.

Why? Mikhail Kelim has named two reasons: the growing competition between companies (more than three thousand companies currently offer overseas property to Russians) and increasing customers’ demand for quality proposals and relevant information. Russians now make fewer spontaneous purchases, they carefully study the markets, read articles, browse news and attend seminars.

“Formerly budget used to be the main factor of company’s success. Now it is impossible to succeed by simply investing a large amount of money”, said Mikhail Kelim, “The age of budgets in the competitive struggle is long gone, the time of technology and knowledge has come on the market. The future is behind those companies that understand it”.


INFOREAL develops

The First INFOREAL Forum was held in May 2009. According to the participants and members of the Supervisory Board it was a success. But Organizers are confident: the event should not only keep pace with the time, but also be ahead of the property market’s rapid development. Market professionals, who have visited the second Forum, reported of an improving quality of the Congress’s business agenda and advertising campaign. Although the exact date of the third Forum is not yet defined, many participants have already expressed willingness to attend the next event.

“The first Forum, which has been held in May, has allowed us to assess the needs of market professionals and consumers alike”, Mikhail Kelim reveals the secret of success, “therefore we have stiffened the selection of speakers for the Congress, enriched the program of seminars, held at the Exhibition, and made them more practical. We can now confidently say that we have a high level of Forum’s business agenda”.

The participants have expressed particular gratitude to the organizers for choosing Ledoviy Dvorets as the showroom. Convenient transport infrastructure, vicinity to subway and its wide popularity has attracted significantly more visitors to this INFOREAL than to the one organized in spring.

Combining a foreign property exhibition with an event dedicated to Russian real estate (exhibition-seminar for the people “Zhilish’niy Proekt”), seemed a like a good idea to many participants. “I would say that sharing the hall with an exposition dedicated to domestic property has cast a positive impact”, head manager of the overseas property department, “Best-Nedvizhimost” company, Julia Titova believes. “Not all residents of St. Petersburg, who have financial ability to purchase property in Bulgaria or Turkey, have an idea of how affordable these markets are. The Seminar-hall was full of people; some have remained there for several hours. This suggests that many visitors feel the lack of information”.

That said, participants claim that the event has been attended by a lot of target visitors. The abundance of applications for foreign property purchase, submitted by the visitors, speaks for a serious success and progress of the INFOREAL.

“When the event is well-organized, the customers would definitely come. I’m pleased with the result”, Ruslan Gavrilov, managing partner of the Runiga company said. “However, the visitors were interested not only in Spain but also in other countries. Formerly we worked only with Spain, but now we’ve opened five more destinations. While creating a multi-brand, I was concerned that the customers would demand other countries and simply “forget” about Spain or, conversely, won’t be paying attention to new destinations. However, the exhibition drew my attention to the proportionality of requests: people submitted requests not only for Spain, but also for Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The Organizers of the INFOREAL International Forum express respect and gratitude to our partners, the Supervisory Board and all participants and visitors and welcome everybody to St. Petersburg on the third INFOREAL.


TESTIMONIALS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE CONGRESS AND THE EXHIBITION

Ruslan Gavrilov, managing partner, Runiga company (Spain)
First of all, when selecting an exhibition you need to review who organizes the event. After doing so, we have even withdrawn from other events and chose this Exhibition. The INFOREAL has a good advertising campaign; the organization is at a decent level, the business agenda is well-thought-out. And, of course, the result is positive. More customers have familiarized with our company; we’ve gained even more partners, communicated directly with the owners of many construction companies in such states as Montenegro, Spain and Turkey.

Vladimir Malkov, president, Cheda Real Estate & Investment (Egypt, Hurghada)
The Organization of the Exhibition is improving; the number of participants becomes noticeably higher. We have received requests for the purchase of specific properties right on the INFOREAL exhibition. Visitors came well-prepared; they have become more interested in living in Egypt and were not simply demanding property. Approximately 80% of visitors that have approached our stand were interested in economy class housing. However we were also addressed by people who demanded more comfortable homes located by the sea. For example, in the Sahl Hashish resort. Many citizens of St. Petersburg have already purchased homes there. A lot of residents are interested in buying it right now. Buyers from Moscow are more active, and it can be observed in virtually all price ranges. Citizens of St. Petersburg take longer time to decide, and make purchases in a more balanced fashion.

Julia Titova, head manager of the overseas property department, “Best-Nedvizhimost” company (Russia, Moscow)
We were pleased with the professionalism of the speakers on the Congress and the plentitude of pressing topics, which were interesting to both seasoned professionals and newcomers on the market. It’s nice that many hearers were representatives of regional realtor agencies. Among all the exhibitions, which take place this Fall in St. Petersburg we have selected the only one - INFOREAL. Our choice is reasoned by the respect towards the Organizers’ professionalism. That is an excellent knowledge of the local market’s specifics, a flexible price policy, and their intention to enrich the event’s business agenda. Petersburg’s market still requires a “campaign against illiteracy” - both among new agencies, and the vast mass of potential buyers. Seminars, which were so elaborately organized on the INFOREAL, are definitely required for the people to be able to choose wisely and not to buy a pig in a poke.

Marina Vasilyeva, the head of overseas property department, “Adveks.Nedvizhimost” real estate company (Russia, St. Petersburg)
The overseas property exhibition was not that well-attended, as the other part of the hall, dedicated to Russian property. But we were approached by target customers, people who already knew what they wanted to purchase. Bulgaria remains popular, and that is great, the visitors have become more interested in the mountainous part of the country. Previously, this region of Bulgaria was less demanded. It is a pleasure to work with visitors, who already know what they come to the exhibition for. In this regard, INFOREAL is a perfect event.

Irina Fedorova, CEO, Worldeconomestate (Russia, St. Petersburg)
Not only the date and venue of the event was very convenient for customers and companies. We are very pleased by the price of participation to quality ratio. There are not that many exhibitions in St. Petersburg that are useful and promising in terms of partners and customers. I think that INFOREAL has firmly occupied a worthy place among local topical activities. At the Congress, I’ve noticed a vivid interest expressed by realtors coming from other regions of Russia. They were interested, ask their questions enthusiastically. It was really useful for us to communicate with foreign companies – our potential partners.

Oksana Kraeva, CEO, Satisfaction Properties company (Kiev, Ukraine)
It’s the second time that we participate in the INFOREAL. We are very satisfied with the results and believe in the Forum’s good prospects of the in general. Thank you very much! Excellent organization and a well thought out advertising campaign. We will continue working and participating in all your events.

Irina Kulagina, lawyer, “Territoriya” company (Montenegro)
It is very interesting to work with the INFOREAL team. This is a group of professionals who know how to properly organize not only the exhibition and advertising campaign, but their business also. I wish you to develop. It’s not the first time that we participate in this Exhibition, and we intend to continue our cooperation. In comparison to the first event, the second exhibition has been attended by far more visitors. And the people who approached us were well aware of Montenegro. This indicates that you organize your job properly.

Kirill Dolginskiy, development director, Belle Fleur company (Russia, Moscow)
The Congress was useful and interesting in terms of reports, presentations and business contacts. It has revealed a lot of important and relevant information, which the market participants often lack. I would like to wish further successful development to the event. I will come to the next INFOREAL Congress hoping to hear more interesting reports.

Author: Alexey Konovalov, editor-in-chief, Prian.ru portal

If you have any questions please call us, Tel. Nr: +7 (812) 346-57-98 or review the Forum’s official web page: www.realfor.ru