The saga surrounding the sale of Moscow Towers in Moscow City has taken another turn. After a hiatus and the removal of the previous listing, Russian Railways has once again put the property up for auction. The dates and the starting price have now been officially announced: 280.8 billion rubles. The auction is scheduled for May 21, and bids will be accepted until May 8.
For the market, this is not just another formality. Over the past few months, the situation surrounding this property has changed more than once. First, information emerged about an impending sale, then the listing was withdrawn, and against this backdrop, it became unclear whether the company had abandoned the deal or simply taken time to review the terms. Now, essentially, the answer is clear: the sale is back in active phase.
A large volume of space—242,500 square meters—has been put up for auction. The majority of this consists of offices, with the remainder comprising apartments, storage units, and parking spaces. For Moscow City, this is a significant lot even by local standards. We are not talking about a small office block or a one-off sale, but about a truly large asset that inevitably attracts the attention of the entire market.
There is another intriguing aspect to this story. Until recently, Moscow Towers was associated with housing the holding company’s own structures. The property was viewed as part of a broader corporate strategy, not as an asset to be sold off. But then the situation changed. And now the tower increasingly looks less like a future headquarters and more like a resource that can be monetized.
The price is a separate issue. The sum of 280.8 billion rubles immediately makes this auction one of the most talked-about in the commercial real estate segment. And the intrigue here lies not only in the fact of the sale itself, but in how the market will react to such a valuation. Because it’s one thing to announce a price, and quite another to find a buyer for an asset of this scale on precisely these terms.
For Moscow City itself, this is also a telling story. The business district has long been developing not only through new projects and construction. Increasingly, the top news stories involve deals involving completed towers, changes in strategy by major owners, and the movement of megaprojects within the market. In this sense, the situation with Moscow Towers clearly illustrates how the City’s development phase is changing.
If a buyer is found, this will be one of the largest deals of the year. If not, the market will still receive an important signal: where the real boundary of demand for expensive and large-scale assets in Moscow City lies today.
Previously, we reported:
Russian Railways has withdrawn the
Moscow Towers skyscraper in Moscow City from sale
Russian Railways will auction off the Moscow Towers office complex in Moscow City
