"Mystery guest" in the Robinson Club

Robinson Club, a luxury country club and restaurant was opened in 2012. Located on Minsk Sea shore it gives visitors a wonderful opportunity to see beautiful Belarusian nature. But how about having a lunch there? Onliner's "mystery guest" has visited the place and gives his verdict:  for price over 849 thousand Belarusian rubbles he got gazpacho with giant dose of garlic and almost perfect steak.

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Top 200 Belarusian businessmen in 2013 (ranked from 151 to 200)

Traditionally, in the end of the year the popular electronic daily newspaper "Ezhednevnik" (The Daily One) ranks the most successful and influential businessmen in Belarus. The ranking is based on available  commercial information as well as expert opinions. There might be some differences in estimation of wealth and influence of particular members of the list but in general the ranking gives true picture of "who is who" in Belarusian business. Now we present you first part of the list which includes people who are placed on positions 151-200.

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"Mystery guest" in the hotel Victoria

Hotel "Victoria" is one of the newest and well-located hotels in Minsk. It is just opposite Komsomolskoye Lake and Park Pobedy, a huge green area not far from city center. The hotel claims to have superior service and offers it visitors not only accomdation but various business services and entertainments such as a casino and a night club. The "mystery guest" from popular Bealrusian portal Onlinder.by booked a room in hotel "Victoria" and now share his impressions...

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Belarusian economy horoscope for 2014

Recently government exchanged views on the current and future state of the economy with parliamentarians. The obvious conclusion – the situation is complicated. “This year was very difficult,” - said Belarus Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich at the joint meeting of both houses of the National Assembly on November 22. But it’s too early to summarize. Basic economic regulations including Decree about indicators, budget and budget-laws must be adopted by the end of the year.

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"Mystery guest" in the hotel Minsk

Hotel Minsk is definetely one of the most popular hotels in Minsk. Indeed, being located near Independence Square and close to all "places to be" in Minsk this hotel is favoured by many foreign visitors. But is it staying there worth money the hotel charges its customers. This review will help to find out.

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Time to worry about savings in USD?

 During autumn certain rumours have begun spreading in Belarus about possible ban on withdrawal of deposits in foreign currency  from Belarusian banks. They appeared after the publication of the article in the govermental newpaper “Respublika”, in which the author wrote about the reasonability of the banks refusal of accepting deposits in foreign currency in general. People are also worried with current state of Belarus trade balance which has turned negative within last six month.

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Fee for a new course

Intergation of Ukraine with the EU will  hurt its aviation industry. But Belarusian industry can benefit from the aggravation of relations between Russia and Ukraine after the latter's convergence with the EU.

   Not so long ago, in Belarus was on an official visit Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. According to him, one of the main purposes of his trip was to develop joint projects with Belarus in the field of industrial cooperation, including in the sphere of military-industrial complex.

   This announcement was seen by many experts as an attempt of the Ukrainian leadership to mitigate the negative consequences for the country of possible actions from Russia after signing an agreement with the EU on associate membership which Ukraine is planning to do next week in Vilnus.

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Apartments for sale in Minsk - October 2013

Review of the residential property market in Minsk in October 2013

   In September, the  long-term growth  of residential real estate in Minsk for the first time significantly slowed down . In mid-October we could see that was a turning point and since then we have observed only decline in prices. Reaction of buyers and sellers on trends and changes one can find in this October review of  Realt.by.

   Against the background of the incipient decline of supply of apartments, the most important and most expected rate in October was the number of contracts closed. The data show us that in October exodus of buyers from the market did not happen. Compared to September, the number of transactions is even slightly increased.

   At the same time, the volume of supply continued to rise by accelerated pace. Number of apartments for sale on market in October was 14.7% more than inlast month. And rate of growth of supply compared to September remained absolutely unchanged.

   The current ratio of these two main indicator shows that the market is fully recovered from the excessive demand and shortage of supply of apartments  which we had been observing during recent month.

The number of transactions recorded in September  - finalized

* yellow - offers, red - sales completed

   Compared to September, we recorded the following changes in consumer preferences:

   First, buyers began paying more attention to the 2- room apartments - their share in the total has risen. Number of 1-room and 3 room apartments  bought in October is less than ususal.

  Secondly, people are actively buying within the First transport ring area. High price does not scare buyers - the number of completed deals in the heart of the city has grown by half.

Structure of apartments sold

   During last two months numbers regarding  real deals look pretty significant. Buyers, focusing on the growth of the supply of apartments in September and August, traded reluctantly. As a result, if the October average bid price remained virtually unchanged (+0.2%), the prices of actual transactions has gained 1.3% due to inertia. In the future , against the background of rapid growth in supply, increased competition for customers and a clear reduction of the people we hardly can expect a convergence of the two curves.

   On the primary market, developers have continued to raise prices in October (+1.5%) despite a clear signal of reversal on the secondary market. It is important to say that at the moment number of apartmemts in new buildings share which are completed, but not sold out, is a third more than the year before.

   It should be noted that the growth recorded by real deals is mainly due to the already mentioned activity in the city center (number of luxury apartments sold in October is more than in September) as well as in the segment of 2- room apartments. Average price sold od 2-room flats in October was higher than September's values ​​about 4.0% , despite the fact that for the remaining segments price growth has not exceeded 1 percent.

   The main feature of the dynamics of proposals for different segments on the secondary market is the growth of property prices in the old houses. The maximum growth rates was recorded for buidings of Stalin era (+2.4 %), as well as apartments in panel Khrushchev and Brezhnev era houses  (+1.6 %). In this modern cast-frame and brick home has decreased in value by 0.3 %, the same thing happened to the more affordable apartments in a modern prefabricated homes (-0.9 %).

   The color scheme of the price card has undergone a significant change over the last month. Most buyers in the center continues to hold there a positive price dynamics, while in many sleeping neighborhoods prices began to fall. Among them is the former city-wide leaders in the growth  in the summer months: Kamennaya Gorka, Shabany and Malinovka.

   Three quarters of 2013 Minsk was the only "bright spot " on the map of Eastern Europe. None of the nearby capital city prices were not rising at the same pace. In autumn the situation began to change gradually: in the Belarusian capital prices have stopped and even started to decline, while almost all the neighbors experience, albeit a slow but growing rise in prices. However, the price of an apartment in Minsk still continues to be close to the maximum historical figure.

Artyom Sakharevich

Realt.by

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Potash wars

Uralkali CEO under arrest

A top manager of Uralkali has been arrested in Minsk under allegation of insider trading and damaging national interests of the Republic of Belarus. He may face up to 10 years in prison but he is just a little figure in chess game between Russia and Belarus. The stakes are high – it is control of world potash market.

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Prices go crazy

Minsk apartments for rent

The rental market has undergone significant changes over the past six months. Thousands of ordinary people faced with the challenge of finding housing. Meager selection and exorbitant prices for apartments of bad quality - so experts describe the situation. July has always been a kind of calm before the storm, before arrival of non-resident students. Not now.

The number of rental apartments for offer has consistently decreased since March. In past years in the middle of summer market was full of apartments freed by students, which immediately increased the total supply by 10-15%. In July 2013, the increase was only 3.0%. Inside the structure, at the same time there have been significant changes. The segment of the most popular one-room apartments continued to narrow, but supply of the 2 - and 3 - bedroom apartments has increased by 12.4% and 5.9%  respectively. For the first time in a long time, the offers of 1-bedroom apartments lost the lead to 2-bedroom ones.

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