About CREA

enter for Real Estate Analysis (CREA) is the commercial company established by number of individuals in 1993. The company specializes in various types of economic analysis and research, in particular in housing policy and housing Sector reform property valuation and taxation, mass appraisal methodology as well as other areas where advanced econometric techniques are required. Participation in tax reform projects funded by US AID resulted in broadening of expertise in taxation issues. In particular, tax impact analysis, tax policy advice and various administration issues became focus of team efforts in 1998-1999. The company has also developed skills in legal advise on real estate and tax reform issues, several employees involved in various policy discussions related to tax policy and real estate market development. Contracts with governments allowed to build up CREA's reputation as contractor for state policy research and advise, in particular in tax policy, title registration and valuation areas. Many of CREA experts are known to federal and local legislators and executive authorities, general director N.Kalinina being secretary of the inter-ministerial working group established by the Government.

ousing market studies for cities of Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod and Barnaul was performed in 1993-1994 for the World Bank Housing Project (subcontract to the Urban Institute). Municipal budget housing expenditure research was performed for the World Bank Enterprise Housing Divestiture Project in 1995. This project allowed to build up capacity to analyze fiscal data and to investigate reasons for mismatch of data from various sources. Land valuation for the Moscow Land Committee was performed in 1994, and property rights aspects of valuation were specifically addressed .

As a result of implementation of several World Bank projects on residential market analysis (1993-1994, 1997, 1998) CREA accumulated information on the status of different segments of the real estate market in several Russian cities.

CREA was subcontracted by the Center for Financial Engineering in Development for implementation of the USAID project "Development of market value based property tax system in Russia" in 1995-1998. Valuation of non-residential properties rental value for the city of Saint Petersburg in 1996-1997 resulted in implementation of unique methodology for setting up rent based on market data which allowed to increase budget revenues for 480 million rubles in 1998 (more than 20 million dollars).

In 1997-1998 CREA also performed work as sub-contractor to NERA-Urban Institute for another US Government project in Novgorod oblast - Partnership for Freedom, and has participated in Urban Institute US AID -funded Project Deepening Urban Real Estate Reform.

The municipality of Odintsovo of Moscow oblast has contracted CREA for technical and policy advice in property tax reform in 1998, the project being continued now with broader consideration of tax reform issues. This project was initiated by the State Tax Service, gained support of local and oblast government, and might be increased through other areas of tax reform under supervision of the Government of Russia (on-going discussion).

Analysis of title registration system and land policy issues in several cities upon the World Bank Housing Project request in 1998-1999 resulted in recommendations on how to push development of title registration system in the right direction (on-going considerations of Federal Program for the development of Title Register involves CREA staff) .

CREA has substantial experience in organizing seminars and conferences - more than 15 meetings of working group were organizationally supported by CREA staff in 1996-1998, follow up training courses, Round Table policy discussions and workshops.

In addition CREA has close business relations, mainly in the area of drafting legislation, with professional associations of appraisers (Russian Society of Appraisers, National Appraisal College), realtors (Russian Guild Of Realtors) and regional associations (The Union of Russian Cities).

CREA provides the distribution of knowledge on mass appraisal and real property taxation. The difinitive world recognized textbook on mass appraisal of International Association of Assessung Officers (IAAO) "Property Appraisal and Assesment Administration" (general editor Joseph K. Eckert) was translated by CREA experts and published jontly with Russian Society of Appraisers. The software statistical l package NCSS (Number Cruncher Statistical Systems) which is being used for market modeling was translated into Russian. Running some training program on modern mass appraisal techniques gives CREA advantage of being involved in training of professionals jointly with Appraisal Institute of Financial Academy under auspices of the Government of Russian Federation. CREA also participated in OECD Tax Center Training Program on property taxation (1995, 1998), and in OECD research survey (on-going, with the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy).

The most recent project (ongoing, to be finished by July 10, 1999) is the US AID funded Tax Reform Project where CREA is subcontracted by the Georgia State University has considerably broaden our participation in tax policy and tax administration considerations.

The result of the company's professional competence and diversification is that it has organizational and financial stability. The company owns an office in downtown Moscow and its proceeds for 1997 are 3.5 million denominated rubles (about $600000), in 1998 the ruble turnover has increased however due to crisis and increase of US dollar it amounted to approximately $500 000, but from many more clients both local and external.