Buying land and real estate in the RF

It is necessary to clarify what kind of land you are talking about. The Russian Law has a number of restricting provisions with regard to purchase of land in Russia by foreigners.

Thus under the provisions of the Land Code of the Russian Federation foreign nationals and foreign legal entities can acquire title for land only if they pay for it. This means that foreigners must not be granted permission to acquire state owned or municipal lands free of charge.

In addition to that foreigners are not allowed to buy lands allocated to members of the horticultural, market-gardening and dacha non-commercial associations (allotments), as well as lands near the state border areas, or lands designated as farming or agricultural lands. Agricultural lands can only be leased by foreigners.

The answers to your questions were provided by the RusBusinessNews legal department jointly with Maxim Stepanov, the Director General of the consulting company OOO Nalogi i Pravo (Taxes and Law) (e-mail: m_stepanov@rusnalog.ru). 

Dealings in the Ekaterinburg real estate market can generate good investment income indeed.  Experts say that despite some downward price correction caused by the global economic and financial crisis the Ekaterinburg market is still one of the most stable real estate markets in Russia owing to the high buying power, declining supply from the developers, and the fact that real estate prices do not depend on the US dollar exchange rates.

According to the article 1196 of the Civil Code of the RF both foreign and Russian nationals have equal rights to purchase real estate in the Russian Federation. Foreigners may buy residential real estate without any limitations (as opposed to land which is subject to significant restrictions). However, you will not be able to get a permanent registration at the address of your property (as a resident), since such registration is available only to the Russian nationals, whereas foreign persons may only be registered at a place of temporary abode, even if they have the title to the property in question. Nor does purchasing real estate give the right for a residence permit or the Russian citizenship.

The procedure to purchase real estate is the same as for Russian citizens. No special documents are required from foreign nationals. All that is needed is the identification documents of the person, and in case the buyer is a married person, the duly notarized spouse’s consent for the purchase of real estate. If you intend to act via a representative, you will also need to issue the letter of authority.

All documents in foreign languages must be duly legalized and translated into Russian. In your case it should be taken into account that both Russia and France are members of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 which abolished the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents. This means that the documents of French origin may be legalized through a simplified procedure by means of a special stamp (apostille).

Since in any transaction to which a foreign national is a party it is necessary to take into account both the legal regulations of the country of his residence and the country where the actual transaction takes place (in particular the formal legal capacity and ability of a foreign national is determined in accordance with the laws of the country of which he is a citizen) it is always recommended to use the services of a qualified lawyer or a real estate agency.

The answers to your questions were provided by the RusBusinessNews legal department jointly with Maxim Stepanov, the Director General of the consulting company OOO Nalogi i Pravo (Taxes and Law) (e-mail: m_stepanov@rusnalog.ru).