The Times: real estate in Moscow – “Russian Roulette”
Posted on Dec 29, 2012
Are you bored with Bulgaria? Tallinn seems too bland? Then why not try your luck in Moscow? “Forget about the queues for bread, dull gray skyscrapers and sweet traps with a seductive but deadly KGB spy named Tanya. Now that the fall of communism was more than 15 years, the heart of the” evil empire “has long become an openly capitalist paradise, thriving due to high oil prices “- suggests, The Times is interested in real estate in the Russian capital.
Although there are still some distinctive features, which can become a trap for the hapless newbie.
Average prices in Moscow last year increased by 25-30%. It was the next stage of the boom, which unfolds with untiring perseverance since the financial crisis in August 1998. Rent prices are also growing due to the chronic shortage of housing, especially high-end apartments, which require Western experts.
However, David Gilmartin, General Manager, UK-owned agency Intermark, warns potential investors not to make mistakes, treating Russia as an enlarged copy of Hungary or the Czech Republic.
“The market in Moscow has a higher level of risk, and not as stable as in Budapest or Prague, said Gilmartin, who has worked in Russia for 10 years. This is a difficult market for casual investors, and to get to it, requires considerable costs if you want to find a property that brings substantial income from the lease. ”
These days, he says, this means the need to part with at least 200-300 thousand pounds, for which you will be able to buy a decent one-bedroom apartment of 90 square meters, in need of some renovation, not far from the center. The annual income from this apartment is 10%, down from the 15% who could get a couple of years ago, but still very good by European standards.
True, the price range is very large in Moscow as befits a metropolis of 10 million people, which is so big gulf between the rich, stuck in traffic jams in jeeps and Mercedes, and the poor, struggling to make ends meet on 100 a month.
In Kropotkins first waterfront definitely more than the latter. The area between Ostozhenka and Prechistenka known as the “Golden Mile”. With prices almost level Mayfair 10,000 pounds per square meter is an area just for the rich Russian.
A more appropriate investment for investors looking to take shelter, an area Patriarchs Ponds, green area in the city center, where the unfolding events of the novel by Mikhail Bulgakovs “Master and Margarita”, reminds The Times. Although now there is only one pool (in winter it turns into a skating rink), but this area is the most clean, green and pleasant in the center of Moscow. It is popular among Western experts that contribute to the prosperity of the market rental housing.
Now renting the apartment for a while, or a tourist who had come on a mission foreigner seems an attractive option. Several hotels, including the monster “Russia”, is currently being demolished or rebuilt, which causes a chronic shortage of beds.
For one bedroom apartment on Tverskaya Moscow equivalent of 5th Avenue, a street full of designer shops, bars and restaurants, you can get more than 100 pounds per night, provided that from her foot to get to the Red Square and the Kremlin.
In the country
Money can be earned, and the suburban housing. Although most live in Moscow idle foreigners (mostly men) prefer to stay closer to the center of the bustling city, but married people prefer a cozy country towns, appearing in abundance in the western suburbs of Moscow.
Three years ago, Stephen Thomas, a 55-year-old architect from Cotswolds, bought a house in one of these places (Odintsovo) for just 66,000 pounds, will spend 55,000 on his “revision”. Although he now lives there with his Russian wife, Lily, 39, and three-year daughter Alexandra, he believes that he could easily take this house for 2800 pounds a month.
“If I sold it now, I could get him 380-400 thousand dollars, but if you wait until the end of the year, it might have been sold already for 450-500 thousand dollars,” he says. After listening to his story about the suffering of full communion with the Russian builders, it is difficult to blame him that he wanted to make a profit.
In any case, Moscow place is not for the faint of heart. The situation became a little calmer than at the beginning of the 1990s, when rival businessmen settle disputes on the streets with a Kalashnikov … “But now, to get to McDonalds, you have to pass through a metal detector and steel doors is a mandatory requirement,” – says The Times.
Before you buy a house, you should inquire not only about who owns it, but also on who is registered on this living space, as each of the registered must consent to the sale. In some cases, entire buildings in the center of the city forcibly bought out by municipal authorities, and the apartment owners receive little compensation.
Even greater care is required when purchasing housing under construction: you may have to shell out 100% right, and when the builder disappears, you get little or no compensation. Sometimes, you will probably get only with excessive enthusiasm.