A Kazakh woman searching for an apartment in Astana was outraged by a rental listing of 250,000 tenge per month for 18 square meters with no renovation. For a comparable sum, one-bedroom apartments nearly twice that size are available on the market, according to infohub.kz.
The woman complained about the high cost of housing on Threads. While searching for an apartment, she came across a unit of just 18 square meters for 250,000 tenge per month, and without renovation.
"Astana, what are you doing, what are you up to? Demand (rising — ed.) prices for rental apartments are insane. 18 sq m — 250,000 tenge, no renovation even. Where is the adequacy? How to find a normal apartment to rent?!" she wrote.
However, a check of current listings shows that 250,000 tenge is not the minimum price for such a small area. On Krisha.kz, for that money one can find one-bedroom apartments of about 36–40 square meters — on both the left and right banks of Astana.
Rent in Astana continues to rise. In August, the average cost of renting housing in Astana increased by 4.9% — to 6,000 tenge per square meter. If this figure is conditionally applied to an 18-square-meter apartment, it would come to about 108,000 tenge per month — more than twice less than the stated 250,000.
Over the year, rent in the capital has risen by 17.5%. For comparison, in Almaty prices rose by 4.4% over the month, to 6,200 tenge per square meter, and by 18.1% over the year.
Housing itself is also becoming more expensive in Astana. In August, the price per square meter in new buildings added 1.1% and reached an average of 747,000 tenge. On the secondary market, prices rose by 1.2% — to 740,000 tenge per square meter.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote about how Kazakhs can save on housing. Thus, co-renting allows cutting expenses almost in half, and when living as a trio, a separate room can cost from about 74,000 tenge per month.