The city apartment has long been Russia's main private investment asset, and the logic was clear: buy an apartment, rent it out, save capital, wait for the price to rise, but after the completion of the massive mortgage, rising housing costs, increasing the supply of rental apartments, and lower investment returns, this model became less convincing.
There is no one universal substitute, and there are several new formats: a unit of income in an apartment hotel, a hotel room under management, a glamping house, a resort property for personal use and renting, and participation in the project business through shares in a special joint stock company. For an investor, it is not just a choice between buying or not buying an apartment, it is a choice between different models of ownership, income, risk, control and participation in the development of the territory.
1. City apartment: understandable asset with limited yield
A city apartment remains the most familiar asset for a private investor, easy to understand, easy to value, easier to sell, can be inherited, mortgaged, used or rented out, and that's its power.
But as an investment product, urban apartments have become weaker, and according to T-Z for the first quarter of 2025, the rental yield for apartments was about 6.8% in Moscow, 5% in St. Petersburg and 6.2% in non-capital cities, which is the estimated yield before full accounting of all costs: taxes, downtime, repairs, wear and tear, replacement of equipment, commissions for finding a tenant and periods between contracts.
To be honest, the net yield is often lower, for example, an apartment worth 10 million rubles is rented for 50 thousand rubles a month, gross revenue is 600 thousand rubles a year, that is, 6% per annum, after tax, idle at least one month, minor repairs, renovation of furniture and equipment, the net yield easily decreases to 4.5-5.5% per annum.
For a conservative investor, this is still acceptable if the main goal is to save capital, but for an investor looking for income, the apartment begins to lose to more flexible formats.
2.The rental market of urban apartments is becoming more competitive
Another important factor is that there are more apartments on the market that are not for living, but for renting out, and when there are many, the landlord competes not only with the quality of the apartment, but also with the price, location, renovation, occupancy time, furniture, appliances and willingness to cut rates.
In the first quarter of 2026, the supply on the long-term rental market in cities with millions has grown significantly. “Kommersant” with reference to “Yandex Rendu” wrote that the offer increased by 32.4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, and the median rate decreased by 3.7%, to 34 thousand rubles.
This is an important signal: if an investor buys a rental apartment in a city, he's not entering a scarce market, he's entering a competitive market, there's demand for rent, but there's also supply going up, so the yields can't go up indefinitely.
For a developer, this means that a city apartment as an investment product does not always sell itself, and the buyer begins to ask the question: if the apartment gives 5-6% per annum to expenses or 4-5% clean, why would I have to have operational trouble if I could look for a stronger product?
Unit in an aparthotel: higher potential, but more operator dependency
The unit in an apartment hotel works differently: the owner does not buy a single apartment for a single tenant, but a hotel room or apartment that is rented daily through the management company, income depends on the load, the average price of the night, season, reviews, sales channels, quality of service, the work of the Criminal Code and the overall reputation of the complex.
In a strong facility, a unit can do more than a city apartment, but it's not just a rental anymore. It's a hotel business in miniature. The owner depends on the operator, the reservation system, marketing, cleaning, laundry, repair, reviews, service, pricing and reporting discipline.
In the market of apart-hotels often claim yields up to 8-12% per annum. For example, in the material of Kommersant on the Vertical network, a program of guaranteed returns up to 12% per annum, as well as a boiler model and fixed programs for up to two years. But this is the declared program of a particular operator, and not a universal norm for the entire market.
The practical conclusion is simple: a unit can be more profitable than an apartment, but only with a strong management company, a transparent payment model and real load: if the operator is weak, the facility is seasonal, service is poor, and the costs are opaque, the unit can be worse than a regular apartment.
4. Management company commission: the main hidden factor of profitability
An investor often looks at the reported returns, but does not look closely enough at the cost structure. In an apartment hotel, the management company commission plays a significant role, it can be 20-30% of revenue or from a certain base of calculation. Some models additionally deduct the commissions of aggregators for booking, cleaning, laundry, utility payments, marketing, maintenance, reserve for updating rooms and taxes.
Avenir’s public example indicates that the management company’s commission will be 25%, which corresponds to the average of the St. Petersburg apartment hotel management market, and notes that the operator includes additional services in the total profitability: breakfast, early check-in, late check-out, cleaning, pet accommodation and other services.
It's critical for an investor to understand not only the commission rate, but also the basis of calculation: if 25% is held back from gross revenue, it's one economy; if after some of the expenses, it's another economy; if the extra income is left to the MC, the investor only gets the income from the bed; if some of the extra income is included in the total income, the model becomes stronger.
In resort real estate, this is especially important because most of the economy can come not only from accommodation, but also from medicine, baths, swimming pools, restaurants, excursions, transfers, rentals, children's programs, clubs and events.
5. Resort property: an asset that combines income and personal use
A resort property is different from a city apartment and a regular hotel unit in that it sells not only income but also lifestyle: the owner can come by himself, live in the natural environment, work remotely, relax with his family, take health programs, participate in routes and clubs, and in periods of absence transfer the property to management.
This makes the product psychologically stronger, because an apartment in a city is often bought as a cold asset: it's rented out to the tenant, the owner doesn't live there, and is not emotionally connected to the object, and a resort unit or a glamping house can be a dual-use asset: personal use plus income.
This is important for a new generation of investors, because increasingly people want to not just own square meters, but have access to quality of life, and if they can work remotely, they can spend part of the year in Altai, Sochi, Baikal, Turkey, Thailand, Portugal or Bali, and in this logic, real estate becomes not only an investment tool, but also a personal infrastructure of life.
That is why resort real estate in Altai should be sold not as a “number”, but as an access to the environment: nature, health, routes, restoration, remote work, services, management company and growth of the territory.
6.Glamping House: Fast format, but not always liquid asset
A glamping lodge may be of interest to an investor if it is built into a strong location and managed network, with the advantage of lower entry thresholds than a capital hotel, quick start-up, natural format, emotional appeal and flexibility.
But a glamping lodge itself is not always a liquid asset; its value depends on land, ownership, engineering, operator, seasonality, access, service, fire safety, sanitation, legal model, and relocation or dismantling.
So glamping as an investment product should not be sold separately, but as part of an ecosystem. If you have a resort city, a medical core, routes, a glamping network, transfers, active tours and a management company, the glamping house becomes part of a stronger product. If it's just a few cabins in the forest without a program, the returns will depend on the weather, advertising and random demand.
For Altai, glamping is especially important as a network of natural points, which can work not only for independent guests, but also for tourists from resort towns who go for one or two nights in the wild, on horse routes, rafting, winter trips, photo tours or hard-to-reach locations with air delivery.
7. Project JSC: not real estate, but participation in business
A separate model is investing in a project joint stock company, in which case the investor does not buy a specific unit, but shares of a company created for a specific project: a hotel, glamping, a medical center, a bath complex, service infrastructure or a tour operator.
It's a different logic: the unit owner gets income from the delivery of his facility or from the general boiler model; the shareholder of the project JSC participates in the business profit. If the project earns from accommodation, restaurant, baths, medical programs, transfers, rental, excursions and events, the profit can be collected within the same company and distributed among shareholders according to corporate governance rules.
The advantage of a project JSC is that the investor gets corporate rights: the right to information, participation in a general meeting, voting on key issues, potential dividends and the ability to exit through the sale of shares, if such a model is provided, which is something that the unit owner usually does not have, which depends on the management company and the terms of the contract.
But there is also risk in a project company: the investor does not get the property, but the share in the business, and what matters is the transparent structure, the charter, the shareholder agreement, the reporting, the rights of minority shareholders, the rules for profit distribution, the exit mechanism and the quality of management.
8. Comparison of the four models for investors
A city apartment is a conservative asset, yields are lower, liquidity is higher, controls are greater, operational complexity is moderate, and it's suitable for an investor who cares about clarity and safety of capital.
A unit in an apartment hotel is a profitable property under management, the potential for profitability is higher, but the dependence on the MC, load, season and expenses is stronger, suitable for an investor who wants passive income and does not want to deal with tenants himself.
A resort unit or apartment in an ecosystem is a hybrid of income and personal use, and its power is not only in renting, but also in the ability to live, relax, work remotely, take health programs and participate in the growth of the territory, suitable for an investor who buys not only a financial instrument, but also a place of life.
A project JSC is a business participation, and the investor doesn't own a specific number, but can contribute to the profits of the entire company, and it's a more mature investor who understands corporate risks and wants to be a co-owner of the project, not just a real estate owner.
9 Where the investor is most often misled
The first mistake is to compare the gross yield of an apartment with the declared yield of a unit, which is incorrect, and you have to compare the net yield after taxes, downtime, repairs, CC fees, operating expenses and the reserve for renewal.
The second mistake is to assume that the guaranteed return on an apartment hotel is constant, often for a limited period of time, one, two or three years, and then the investor moves to the actual model, where the return is based on load and expense.
The third mistake is to ignore wear and tear: In hotel operations, furniture, mattresses, textiles, plumbing and appliances wear out faster than in a normal apartment, and if the renovation fund is not pledged, the returns of the first years will be artificially inflated.
The fourth mistake is not to check the management company. A beautiful property without a strong CR turns into real estate with unpredictable returns, you need to look not at promises, but at the operator's experience, downloads, reporting, sales channels, tariff policy and feedback.
The fifth mistake is to buy a resort unit without an ecosystem. A single aparthotel in a beautiful location will compete with other properties. A unit in the resort ecosystem receives support from a medical center, services, routes, glampings, events, clubs and international marketing.
10.For Altai, the key product is not the number, but the environment.
The Altai Republic should not sell just units to investors. It's too narrow. A unit without a medium is a number with a view. A unit in a resort ecosystem is part of the health, recreation, remote work and natural tourism market.
To do this, there should be services around the accommodation: medical core, stress programs, RDT, health school, lecture programs, bath complex, swimming pools, restaurants, routes, excursions, quad bikes, horses, alloys, snowmobiles, boats, glampings, transfers, clubs and children's formats.
So the investor is not only buying future leases, but buying assets in a territory that can grow as a resort town.
The basic formula for Altai is that a city apartment makes money living near work, and a resort unit makes money from a new way of life: health, nature, remote work, recreation, management and long-term growth of the territory.
11.The practical conclusion for the developer
For a developer, comparing a flat to a resort unit is not an academic issue; it's a product strategy issue.
If a developer continues to build only urban apartments, he works in a competitive market where the buyer depends on mortgages, income, rates and saturation of the offer. If a developer builds resort units in a strong ecosystem, he sells another product: profitable real estate, personal use, recreation, participation in the growth of the territory.
But you can't just move the urban logic to Altai, you can't build a mountain complex and call it a resort, you have to design the hotel operation, the service centers, the management company, the medical core, the routes, the engineering model, the rules for unit use, the reporting for investors and the year-round loading program.
This is where a new specialization emerges: resort development, not conventional housing construction.
12.A practical conclusion for the investor
Investors need to choose not only the object, but also the model.
If you want to be clear and liquid, you want to have a city apartment that's a workable option, but you want to have a moderate return. If you want to have potentially higher returns and passive management, you can think of a unit in an apartment hotel. If you want to have personal use, nature, leisure, remote work and growth, you want to have a more robust resort unit in the ecosystem. If you want to have a business share, you need to look at the project JSC, the shares, the corporate rights and the distribution of profits.
The key is not to buy the promise of return. You have to buy a model that is clear: who controls, who creates demand, how revenue is generated, what costs are deducted, how profits are distributed, what happens in 3-5 years, how the facility is updated and how the investor can exit the project.
A city apartment remains a clear investment asset, but its returns are limited and competition in the rental market is increasing. A unit in an apartment hotel can generate more income, but depends on the management company, the load, the season, the costs and transparency of reporting. A resort unit in a strong ecosystem works more broadly: it combines personal use, rent, recreation, health, remote work and growth in the value of the territory.
This is particularly important in the Altai Republic, where you can't sell an investor a square meter or a room with a view, you need to create a resort environment where the unit becomes part of a medical, wellness and tourist product, and then real estate competes not only with a city apartment, but also with a new way of life.
The next stage of the market is not the abandonment of urban housing, but the emergence of new investment models: profitable units, aparthotels, glamping, project joint-stock companies and resort cities of a new type, in which real estate earns not only on rent, but on managed territory, services, health, nature and long-term capitalization.