Ruslan Abdrakhmanov, real estate agent in Almaty

Where I started

I moved to Almaty from Shymkent in 2010. I had nowhere to live, so at first I stayed in a builders' trailer. I found work on the same site and spent about a year installing the facade of the Atakent hotel.

Then I joined a crew building turnkey houses. For four years I worked with my hands and learned how a building really works: what it's made of, which walls carry the load, where you can save and where you never should. I didn't know then that this would become my main advantage.

How renovation turned into investing

Next came apartment renovations. After a few successful turnkey jobs I found a model: buy apartments unfinished, renovate them and sell within two or three months.

I went through that cycle 15 times and earned four apartments of my own. I still rent them out, so I know the rental market from practice, not from articles.

My own concrete plant

In 2019, before the pandemic, I went into producing and selling concrete. From February I ran it through Dalila Group LLP: we had our own concrete batching plant in the village of Burunday and the website tasbeton.kz.

We delivered concrete across the whole city: from the Eastern Bypass to the village of Abai, and from Burunday up to Zvezdnaya Polyana, where the upper TAMOS school stands. That showed me construction from the other side and why the concrete grade and material certificates decide how long a building will last.

In winter demand for concrete drops, but I didn't sit and wait. I came up with selling aggregates in 25 kg bags: sand, crushed stone, screenings, expanded clay, plus gravel and boulders. People bought them by the truckload and by the bag for apartment renovations, because almost nobody sold them that way. An average apartment took 30 to 50 bags. After the lockdown I managed to sell the project profitably.

Why I understand commercial premises

I used to think premises were a detail: find a place, move in, start working. The pandemic changed that. Lockdown gave me time to study marketing and analytics.

When I invested in a business myself, I saw how many risks a single unit can hide: restrictions, bans, lease terms, zoning. For a Salam Bro burger place I chose a site in Kaskelen on the main square, next to the town's only park, on good lease terms. It earned about 4 million tenge net per month, and I sold it at the peak.

What Kaspi taught me

I joined Kaspi Bank as a development manager. I searched for premises for branches and projects, including Magnum stores, negotiated with owners and agreed lease contracts.

We assessed about 140 sites and opened 15 stores. The payback forecast was 5–7 years; they turned a profit in about two. That's where I learned that the winner in a deal is not the one who signs fastest, but the one who prepared best.

How I work today

I have a law degree, so in every deal I read the documents first and only then get excited about the apartment. I worked at Arbat Real Estate and now advise clients independently.

I help people buy a home, find business premises, invest and relocate to Kazakhstan. I work in English, Russian and Kazakh. My fee starts at 1%.