It will check compliance with the Olympic preparations plan Russia submitted to the IOC on August 6. Rogge also wants to discuss with his Russian colleagues the main issues relating to Olympic construction.
But Russian officials are busy trying to clear the areas set aside for Olympic sports construction from hotels, houses and hangars built there without permits.
It is next to impossible to find a free plot of land in Sochi; its territory has long been divided between the owners of hotels, private households and developers.
Real estate is selling like hot cakes in Sochi, where prices have been growing annually by 20%-30% in the last few years. Unlike local residents, who buy housing seldom and cheaply, rich Russians from Moscow, St. Petersburg and the country's oil-bearing provinces view real estate on the Black Sea coast as good investment.
Before the IOC chose the venue among three candidates - Sochi (Russia), Salzburg (Austria) and PyeongChang (South Korea) - one hectare (2.5 acres) of land in Sochi cost approximately $10 million, and flats were sold at $3,000 per square meter in block houses and $7,000-$8,000 in elite housing.
As soon as the IOC announced its decision, real estate prices in the city soared by 10%, and developers expect them to grow by another 30%-40% by the end of the year.
Analysts are divided over long-term forecasts. Some believe that real estate prices will continue to grow until 2014, while others think they will peak in the next few years and then possibly go down.
But officials of the Krasnodar Territory (southern Russia) want to freeze the prices now. They have proposed putting Sochi on the list of national protected territories, but this calls for amendments to the Land Code. Another option is to ban the privatization of land plots, limiting land lease to 49 years, or even buy out some land plots from current owners "for state needs."
The latter group comprises about 400 plots where local residents built dachas and car sheds without permits, and developers who built high-rise hotels on the money of investors from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Russian environmental regulator, attempted to restore order in the city two years ago. His group inspected the city and found 500 structures built on the coast without permits. About 30 of them were put on the destruction list without a court ruling, but local officials "forgot" the order soon after the Moscow commission left.
Territorial governor Alexander Tkachev said emotionally in August 2007: "Just look at what the coastal zone of Sochi: illegal buildings have decimated the beach area. Now we'll need millions of dollars to demolish them. But we will find the money and force the culprits to honor the law."
The authorities spent 2.2 million rubles (approximately $85,000) to demolish illegal buildings in the third quarter of the year, and have allocated the same amount for the fourth quarter.
But this is small change compared to the golden rain of 314 billion rubles ($12.2 billion), which will fall on the city before the 2014 Games. The bureaucrats are showing unprecedented zeal: even before the governor made his fiery speech, 14 buildings had been demolished and the same fate is awaiting 31 buildings.
Experts say the campaign is playing into the hands of land speculators, because new bans will double land prices in some neighborhoods, spurring them by 10-15 times in prestigious areas. Developers will make up for their spending on the acquisition of expensive land by raising real estate prices.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
