How to build a development business in Ukraine: the story of Rostyslav Melnyk, RIEL CEO, in an interview with FEDORIV VLOG

In this interview, he shared his business story, talked about rebranding and predicted the future of the Ukrainian market.

Nothing in life is easy. You have to learn to understand yourself and shape your worldview so that you feel good.

Success is impossible without failure. Successful people are not born successful. They work hard their whole lives, going against the wind and uphill. And if they do the right thing, guided by good human values, even when they fall, there will always be someone to support them. I had to learn a lot through practice and my own mistakes. But I was never ashamed to ask for help if I didn’t know something. Don’t be afraid of life, love it and be super brave. Live. That’s it.

From trading plumbing fixtures at the market at 17 to selling apartments worth over $200,000,000 a year

I got married at 17. It was the first big step I took in my life. We were expecting a child. I started thinking not only about myself, but also about how to earn some money and what skills I needed to have.

My first partner and I started trading in various plumbing accessories. Our parents gave us $600 each.

In 2000, I went to London to earn money — I had to pay off my first loan: after my goods were confiscated at the border, I owed several thousand dollars. And that was the second fateful step in my life that influenced my thinking. I hadn’t seen the world and didn’t know anything, I just went to nowhere. I worked very hard and started earning $3,000 a month as a labourer.

After returning home, I had an idea that would change my whole life. I got into a business and market segment that was growing very quickly — the real estate market. I was in it from the very beginning. I founded RIEL.

We were among the first to implement a complex CRM system, dashboards, Power BI, and signed a partnership with Microsoft in 2012–2013. In 2019, the Board of Directors was formed, and in 2020, I was already preparing the team for a possible crisis. But no one could have imagined the scale of what would happen in 2022.

At the time of the full-scale invasion, RIEL had commitments for 620,000 m²

In the first days of the war, I took basic preventive measures, purchased materials, and warned everyone who had deferred payments not to pay anything. Then I focused solely on the war.

In May, I returned to business, and we began to make painful but strategic financial decisions that helped save the company.

During the three years of war, I did not engage in long-term strategies or marketing at all. And only when we crossed the threshold of 80% of our obligations to our investors, did I feel morally entitled to rebrand RIEL and launch new projects.

In early June this year, we entered the market with the launch of six new ambitious projects in Kyiv and Lviv, with a total area of over 500,000 square metres.

The new generation of RIEL projects are modern living spaces with an emphasis on technology, comfort and architectural quality.

We are introducing a new format within the comfort class – RIEL Family Style, which is essentially about family values and the opportunity to have everything within your living space: from freshly baked rolls for breakfast to co-working spaces, gyms, pharmacies, medical facilities, and more. RIEL’s new projects are not just square metres, they are a lifestyle and opportunities.

Our current goal is to make the Ukrainian real estate market systematic, attract international financial institutions and finally open the way for people to truly affordable mortgage housing. To do this, it is necessary to bring order to legislation and cooperation with international financial institutions so that the Ukrainian market emerges from the war completely renewed and on the right track.

RIEL has over 22 years of experience in the Ukrainian real estate market. During this time, more than 100 real estate projects have been completed in Lviv and Kyiv, with 1,000,000 m² of existing and new projects already delivered. Today, RIEL is among the top three largest developers in Ukraine according to the analytical team of LUN and Forbes Ukraine. Despite the challenges of the war, the company has successfully completed all projects started before 2022 in Kyiv and maintained its leading position in the Lviv market.