In 2025 Moscow's office market set a record: about 743,000 m² delivered — 20% more than a year earlier and three quarters of all new supply in Russia. You would expect tenants to feel relief. At RentOfficeToday we aggregate offers from 1,280 business centers daily and see the opposite: choice in prime locations has not grown, and rents keep climbing. Here is why — and what it means if you are looking for an office in 2026.
A record tenants never felt
The secret is in the structure. Of the 21 business centers completed in Moscow in 2025, more than half the volume came from just three projects — iCity, Slava phase 4 and the National Space Center. Two of the three are corporate headquarters that never reached the open market. Developers ultimately delivered only half of what was announced for the year, and Core.XP estimates 45% of the pipeline slipped into 2026.
About a million square meters are announced for 2026, but market players agree the realistic figure is 700–800k m², with a large share again pre-committed to HQs. Construction costs meanwhile hit 380,000 ₽ per usable m² (+15% YoY, IBC Real Estate and Stone data) — new offices have no room to get cheaper.
Vacancy: looser on average, not in practice
Average Class A vacancy did edge up to 7.8–8.4% depending on methodology (Nikoliers, NF Group). But that is an average: almost all the free space sits in new buildings outside established business hubs. In the Leningradsky corridor, around Paveletskaya and in Moscow-City only 1–1.5% is vacant, and some towers are full. Large blocks over 5,000 m² are hardest to find — no more than 5% of listings.
Flex offices behave most paradoxically: coworking vacancy more than tripled in a year to 17.9% in H1 2026, while asking rates grew 30–40%. New premium flagships joined the market, dragging the average price up while standing half-empty.
Real prices: our catalog numbers
Market reports quote asking rates of new Class A towers — hence the "42,000 ₽/m²/yr by end of 2026" forecasts. The RentOfficeToday catalog shows a wider picture: across 8,733 offices with open pricing, the median Moscow rent is 33,500 ₽/m² per year. In Moscow-City it is 74,500 ₽, across the Central district 44,000 ₽, and outside the center 26,500 ₽. Moving from the center to a mid-belt metro location saves about 40% of the budget for the same floor area.
In coworking the gap is starker. Newly launched venues ask on average 63,000 ₽ per desk — 42% more than a year ago. Yet the median across 182 operating venues in our coworking catalog is 28,500 ₽ per desk, with entry from 4,000 ₽. The rate growth is the price of novelty, not of the market: established spaces have desks available and negotiate willingly for anchor residents.
Renting vs buying
The key structural shift: the market turned to sales. End users accounted for 10–15% of deals in 2022 and over half by the end of 2025 — with expensive money, selling meters beats building for rent. Demand polarized: compact 50 m² units and whole floors or HQ buildings sell, the middle sags. The median sale offer in our catalog is 408,000 ₽/m², so payback versus renting at the median rate is roughly 12 years before fit-out and the time value of money. Buying makes sense when the office is a decade-long asset and address; for a growing team, rental flexibility is still cheaper.
Run the numbers for your team
The calculator uses medians — a specific deal can be notably better. For teams up to 15–20 people the math usually favors coworking: fit-out, furniture, internet, meeting rooms and reception are built into the desk price, and the contract scales monthly. From 20–30 people a conventional office in the mid-belt starts to win — especially if you lock the rate with a long lease before scarcity in prime hubs pushes prices again.
What comes next and how to use it
Another 5.9 million m² of offices are announced in Moscow through 2030, with nearly half of the future supply concentrated in eight emerging business districts — Big City above all. Scarcity in established hubs will persist: new meters arrive selectively and expensively, and HQ demand buys the best at the excavation stage.
Practical takeaways are simple. If your business is tied to a prime address — fix terms now; it will not get looser there. If budget matters — look at Class B near the metro outside the CAO: a median of 26,500 ₽/m²/yr versus 44,000 ₽ in the center for comparable quality. If headcount is unpredictable — start with an established coworking at the median 28,500 ₽ per desk rather than flagship newcomers at double the price. All 16,938 current offers — direct from owners, commission-free — are in the RentOfficeToday catalog.