Families across Russia are finishing far fewer homes of their own, with households completing 36.2 million square metres of housing in the first eight months of the year, 23.5 per cent less than a year earlier. That is according to figures released last month by Rosstat, the federal statistics service, which found total housing completions fell 14 per cent to 58.1 million square metres.
“Demand for domestic sawn timber is practically at the level of the same period last year,” Vyacheslav Spirenkov said when the first-half figures came in, with the deputy head of the Federal Forestry Agency reporting sawn timber exports down 18.5 per cent. Russia’s sawmills have still cut output, with softwood lumber production down 7.1 per cent across the first eight months of the year, Rosstat said.
Wood remains the most common wall material in Russian family homes, making up 28 per cent of their floor area last year, ahead of brick at 20.6 per cent. Developers, meanwhile, relied most on block construction, at 36 per cent of floor area, followed by brick at 30.1 per cent.
Their completions rose 8.2 per cent on a year earlier to 21.9 million square metres in the first eight months. In August, households came closer to last year’s pace, finishing 4.8 million square metres of their own homes, down 5.8 per cent on a year earlier.
Most of the market’s fall came early, with completions down 28.2 per cent in the first quarter. That was off a high base, after completions in the same months of 2025 rose 8.9 per cent on the year before, Rosstat said. Homebuyers across Russia paid an average 10.52 per cent on mortgages taken out in July, up from 7.46 per cent a year earlier, the Bank of Russia said. Overdue mortgage debt rose 60 per cent in a year to 253.7 billion roubles, or 1.2 per cent of all mortgage debt.
Siberian households built 34.4 per cent less than a year earlier, the steepest fall of Russia’s eight federal districts, followed by the Urals at 33 per cent and the Southern district at 30.1 per cent. In the Irkutsk region, home to one of Russia’s three largest forest survey programmes this year, owner-built housing fell 47.5 per cent, while the Arkhangelsk region was almost unchanged.
Alexander Dyatlov, who chairs the forest industry committee of the Arkhangelsk regional assembly, last month named high interest rates alongside the loss of European markets as pressures on Russia’s forest regions. Only a weaker rouble can substantially improve exporters’ position, Dyatlov said, because there are no preconditions for a radical rise in demand or prices abroad.
“There are certain minimum fixed costs, OPEX, that are absolutely required to keep a workshop, a plant, or an enterprise running,” Nikolai Ivanov said, with the Segezha Group vice-president calling the first half “not the most positive” for the sector. Segezha, Russia’s largest forest company, lost 88 billion roubles last year, with China taking 77 per cent of its lumber sales while Europe stays closed to Russian wood.
Ivanov has also pressed Moscow to back a shift beyond raw sawn timber into prefabricated house kits and cross-laminated timber, with cheap, long-term finance behind it. Last month, he warned that a new law making leaseholders pay for forest surveys from September next year could cost companies their leases if Roslesinforg, the state agency in charge of the surveys, falls behind.
Russian factories turned out 23,800 square metres of wooden houses in August, 17.6 per cent more than a year earlier, Rosstat said. Output was still 6.3 per cent lower across the first eight months of the year, while plywood production fell 10.1 per cent over the same period.
It comes as Russia’s timber harvesting businesses close faster than new ones open, with liquidations up 9.6 per cent to 1,590 in the first eight months of the year. Analysts at WhatWood, a Russian timber market consultancy, said harvesting fell 5 per cent year on year in the first seven months as demand for finished products stayed low.
