A resident of Russia’s Astrakhan region seeking to buy a two-room apartment measuring 57 square meters in a new building with a loan would, at market rates, have to pay the bank 120,000 rubles per month.
That amount is roughly equal to two and a half median salaries in a region considered among the poorer ones. In 2025, the median wage there was just over 47,000 rubles, meaning half of residents earned less than that. By this measure, the region ranked 68th among Russia’s regions and republics.
At the same time, Central Bank regulations apply: a loan payment exceeding 60% of income is considered critical. For an average resident of the region to devote that share of earnings to the bank and still have money left for everyday expenses, a very large down payment would be required.
According to the calculation, that would amount to about 8 million rubles, provided the borrower has no access to subsidized mortgage programs. Without such support, a market-rate mortgage becomes unattainable for a large share of potential homebuyers.
Across Russia as a whole, the average monthly payment on a market-rate mortgage is 99,000 rubles. For that reason, such loans are said to be out of reach for at least 47 million Russians.
This represents 87% of all employees at medium and large enterprises, excluding sole proprietors and the self-employed. That is how many workers earn less than 150,000 rubles a month, effectively leaving them with almost no chance of qualifying for a mortgage under the Central Bank’s debt-burden rules.