Vestor.Estate

Videos

Kyiv Real Estate,
Explained on Camera

26 videos from the Vestor.Estate team: how payments and escrow work, what to check before renting or buying, which streets to look at, and how the market has moved since 2020. Each video has its own page with chapters and links to the matching guides.

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Buying property in Ukraine

Four Myths About Payments in Real Estate in Ukraine | Kyiv, 2021

Four Myths About Payments in Real Estate in Ukraine | Kyiv, 2021

2:33 · 2021

Elena Karpukhina, head of sales at Vestor.Estate, takes four myths about paying for property in Ukraine. The four myths: that sellers take only cash because they fear banks (with a reputable bank and a proper explanation they usually come around); that payments must be in hryvnia (non-residents, including those with temporary residency, can transact in any foreign currency); that foreign currency cannot be transferred inside Ukraine (it can, within the same bank); and that a buyer abroad must send a SWIFT payment (escrow, with a representative on the ground, is quicker and safer).

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How to check an apartment owner's documents in Ukraine

How to check an apartment owner's documents in Ukraine

2:26 · 2020

How do you know the person offering you an apartment owns it? Sean Almeida lists what to ask for before you pay anything. Scans of the purchase or gift agreement, stamped and marked with holograms and QR codes. The technical passport, with the floor plan and the size of every room and balcony, so you can compare it with what you saw. An extract from the national property register, which a notary can order. On signing day, the owner brings the originals, not photocopies or printouts.

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Buying property in Ukraine: 3 myths that cost money

Buying property in Ukraine: 3 myths that cost money

4:08 · 2020

Three beliefs about buying property in Ukraine that Sean Almeida says are wrong, as of 2020. The three: that paying cash is legal (above the limit he states in the video it is not, and a deal can be declared void with both sides fined); that a new building from a developer carries no risk (apartments sold before commissioning come with an investment certificate, not title, and a major developer had just gone bankrupt); and that every transaction must be in hryvnia (a non-resident buyer can pay a Ukrainian seller in dollars or euros).

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Escrow in Ukrainian real estate: how it works for foreign buyers

Escrow in Ukrainian real estate: how it works for foreign buyers

1:57 · 2020

Escrow accounts in Ukrainian property deals, explained by Sean Almeida in July 2020. Recent changes in the law made escrow workable, and the government encouraged it. He describes two cases: a buyer who does not want a Ukrainian bank account (US citizens often avoid foreign accounts because of IRS reporting), and a buyer abroad whose lawyer or relative holds the power of attorney but cannot pay from their own account. The money sits in escrow and moves to the seller on the day of the deal. At the time, Vestor.Estate had used it four times in six weeks.

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Renting in Kyiv

Everything You Need To Know About Rental Payments In Kyiv, Ukraine

Everything You Need To Know About Rental Payments In Kyiv, Ukraine

2:35 · 2020

Last month's rent and a security deposit are different things, and tenants in Kyiv mix them up. Sean Almeida explains both. After your standard 30 days' notice, the last month's rent is already paid, so you owe only the community charges. The deposit comes back after the owner checks for damage, minus any unpaid charges and utilities. The risk is an owner who keeps the entire deposit with an invented reason. His advice: check the owner's character before you hand over the money, and write everything into the lease.

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Kyiv neighbourhoods and streets

The Very Heart of Kyiv Thru The Eyes of Vestor.Estate

The Very Heart of Kyiv Thru The Eyes of Vestor.Estate

5:17 · 2020

A five-minute walk through the historic heart of Kyiv. The narration covers the Golden Gate, Zolotovoritska, Reitarska, Yaroslaviv Val and Ivana Franka streets, Shevchenko Park and Landscape Alley. On Yaroslaviv Val almost every building is an architectural monument, and a pie bakery has been open since 1946. Ivana Franka holds the embassies of Sweden, Austria and Germany, a couple of blocks from the National Opera. Reitarska fills with a creative crowd in the evening.

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Heart of the heart: best locations for dwelling and investments in the Kyiv center

Heart of the heart: best locations for dwelling and investments in the Kyiv center

3:10 · 2020

Where in central Kyiv do expats rent, and where do investors buy? Sean Almeida names three areas. The Golden Gate area is the unofficial diplomatic district, home to about half the embassies. It is hilly and changes street by street, so he suggests buying on a quiet side street. Around Shevchenko Park, families want to be near the playgrounds, but few apartments face the park. Lypky is the government quarter, tree-lined and prestigious with locals, and hilly too.

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Real Estate Investments - Kyiv, Ukraine, Podil (Podol) Area: Is It Worth It?

Real Estate Investments - Kyiv, Ukraine, Podil (Podol) Area: Is It Worth It?

2:50 · 2020

Sean Almeida's case against buying in Podil, as he saw it in 2020. Podil sits a few metres above sea level and has flooded before. Old tram tracks tear up the roads, and some buildings have water and electricity problems. Few embassies are there, so the high-budget tenants who rent in the historic centre rarely live in Podil. His timeline: five to ten years for Podil to improve, against three to five years in the Golden Gate area. If you can afford the historic centre, he says, buy there.

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Investing in Kyiv real estate

Pitfalls: Rentals In The New Buildings [Kyiv, Ukraine]

Pitfalls: Rentals In The New Buildings [Kyiv, Ukraine]

3:20 · 2020

Before you buy a new-build apartment to rent out, Sean Almeida's checklist. Know your tenant first and pick the location for them: an IT business centre nearby suits a young Ukrainian professional. Check parking, because some central new buildings have about ten spaces for 120 apartments. Expect neighbours still renovating, since most flats are sold as a bare concrete shell. And look at what the developer plans next door: more towers mean your rental competes with the next building. A 10 percent yield in year one can fall to 5 percent or lower.

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Real estate investing in Kyiv: 3 lessons from 8 years

Real estate investing in Kyiv: 3 lessons from 8 years

4:16 · 2020

Three pieces of advice for foreign investors in Kyiv real estate, from Sean Almeida. One: know your tenant's profile before you buy, down to the floor and the lift. A third-floor flat with no lift will not suit a family with strollers. Two: check the track record of contractors, realtors and designers. Ukraine has no licences for them and "yes, we can do it" is the usual answer, so ask for projects like yours, and ask a realtor how they know the rent. Three: build relationships. Central Kyiv is small, and brokers and embassies talk to each other.

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Who rents your Kyiv apartment: diplomats, NGOs and business expats

Who rents your Kyiv apartment: diplomats, NGOs and business expats

3:42 · 2020

Who should an investor rent to? Sean Almeida ranks the tenants of central Kyiv, drawing on eight years of experience. First, diplomatic missions: they stay through crises, fix the rent in dollars or euros, and stay two to three years, sometimes four or six. Second, aid and technical-assistance organisations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders: smaller budgets, many more of them, often young couples. Third, business expats: generous budgets in good times, but they follow the economy. His rule is to know who your tenant will be before you buy.

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Interviews and the team

Sean Almeida, founder of Vestor.Estate

Sean Almeida, founder of Vestor.Estate

0:59 · 2020

Sean Almeida, founder and CEO of Vestor.Estate, introduces himself and the company in under a minute. He grew up in the USA, started his career at an investment bank in Moscow, and moved to Kyiv in 2012 to work in real estate.

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Sean Almeida interview: running a real estate company in Kyiv (Part 1)

Sean Almeida interview: running a real estate company in Kyiv (Part 1)

39:58 · 2021

Part 1 of the big interview with Sean Almeida, CEO and founder of Vestor.Estate, recorded in 2021. Sam Kearley, a well-known Kyiv expat and businessman, asks him why an American left an investment bank in Moscow for Kyiv real estate in 2012, what the legal risks look like, why the historic centre suits foreign owners, and how Vestor.Estate runs a deal from purchase to renovation, rental and management.

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Sean Almeida interview: running a real estate company in Kyiv (Part 2)

Sean Almeida interview: running a real estate company in Kyiv (Part 2)

38:36 · 2021

Part 2 of the big interview with Sean Almeida, CEO and founder of Vestor.Estate, recorded in 2021. Sam Kearley asks where the company goes in the next five to ten years, how the market has changed since the company started, why Vestor.Estate works in one square kilometre of the historic centre, and how historic buildings compare with new ones for an investor.

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Market updates and rebuilding

Kyiv real estate update from August 2020

Kyiv real estate update from August 2020

3:28 · 2020

Sean Almeida's market update from August 2020, as the quarantine was ending. Rentals had become a renter's market: daily-rental flats moved into long-term lets and good properties came back on the market. He expected rents 10 to 15 percent lower where an owner had no tenant lined up, with the surplus absorbed by mid-September. Sales were steady: Ukrainian owners hold property as a store of value in a crisis, so prices neither rose nor fell much. The next driver, he said, would be mortgages, with the key rate at 6 percent and banks still near 10.

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Covid-19 Effect On Kyiv Real Estate

Covid-19 Effect On Kyiv Real Estate

3:03 · 2020

What did the Covid-19 quarantine do to central Kyiv's property market? Sean Almeida answers, in a video published in July 2020. Rentals nearly stopped for six to eight weeks because no new foreigners arrived, and owners who wanted a tenant cut prices by 30 to 50 percent. Sellers held their prices; there was no fire sale. He expected rents to stay 10 to 20 percent lower for a few months after the quarantine, then recover because demand still outran supply. The bigger driver, he said, would be cheaper mortgages in 2021.

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