ITAR-TASS

Sergey Tsyvin, head of the Vernadsky office of the suburban real estate department of Inkom-Real Estate: 

– The number of alternative transactions, when an apartment is exchanged for a house, is small. Most often, an apartment in the city is exchanged for a country house (about 20% of transactions), less often, when improving housing conditions, a house is exchanged for a house. It is difficult to call this a trend.

Some people are moving from economy to business class, while others are selling a more expensive house to buy two cheaper ones. In a word, there is movement on the suburban market. In the village of Gagarinland (150 km from the Moscow Ring Road), 20% of buyers first sold their summer cottages in garden associations or economy-class villages in the middle of nowhere to buy cottages here, by the lake and forest. Another 20% did not sell anything, but bought a second summer cottage, “for recreation,” as the buyers themselves say.

“More and more often people are acquiring so-called distant dachas,” confirms Anton Larin, head of the suburban real estate department at Prime Time Realty.

Up to a quarter of clients finance the purchase of new country real estate by selling the old one, adds Igor Zaugolnikov, director of the marketing communications department of Rodex Group, and about 15% of the total number of buyers are looking for a second or third home. About 10% of Absolut Management clients sell their home to buy a plot or cottage in the management company's villages (Lesnaya Sloboda, Tsvetochny, Marusin Lug), says Anna Shishkina, head of the marketing department of Absolut Management.

We can talk about the migration of mass solvent demand from business class segments towards segments previously considered economical, concludes Dmitry Tsvetkov, director of the suburban real estate department at Penny Lane Realty.

At the same time, there is also a reverse trend: there is a tendency to improve living conditions. Today, 30% of the residents of the Pavlovo residential complex are "emigrants" from economy-class villages, as Nadezhda Kreslavskaya, head of the client service department at OPIN, gives as an example. Ivan Sinitsyn, a partner in the Gagarinland project, confirms: most buyers in this village have exchanged a budget house closer to the capital for a higher-class dacha, but further from Moscow.

Get out of Shanghai

People change houses for two main reasons: because of the quality of the village or house and in search of beautiful and relatively clean nature.

At least 10% of buyers of plots without a contract realize the hopelessness of Shanghai and move to organized settlements, Igor Zaugolnikov is sure. And recently, according to him, their number has been gradually but steadily growing. In general, according to his data, about 50% of "unauthorized builders", having encountered problems with construction and further living in unorganized settlements, begin to plan a purchase in a cottage village.

Infrastructure and security are another strong argument in favor of organized development. “One of my friends had his car stolen from his yard at night twice during the year,” Zaugolnikov shares. “And now he is buying a house in an organized settlement, where there is 24-hour security.”

According to Dmitry Gerasimov, Sales Director of the Okskaya Sloboda settlement, their residents are primarily guided by central communications, a well-thought-out living environment, roads, illuminated streets, a safe environment, the presence of parking, and a playground.

Previously, the question of neighbors was of concern mainly to buyers of elite and business class houses, now it is becoming relevant in more budget-friendly settlements. "I want to live among normal people, and not with those who drink and yell at night" - this is also from the comments of buyers of houses in the "Gagarinland" settlement. The owners of the project immediately took care of creating a friendly community in their settlement, reasonably judging that it would not be possible to attract attention to such a distant project with only a lake. Although sales began only a season and a half ago and the houses are only being built, the residents are already friends with their families and find business partners.

Larin claims that 95% of those planning to buy a country house want to live in organized communities.

Picturesque places are a real magnet for Muscovites tired of right angles and dust. "In search of more environmentally friendly places to live, people buy distant dachas and move, for example, to the Mozhaisk Reservoir. Moreover, due to traffic jams, which are mainly located directly on the approaches to Moscow, the road, say, up to 90 km takes only 20-30 minutes longer than to the nearby dachas," says Zaugolnikov. "Now my friend is trying to sell a house on Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway in order to buy a home on the Mozhaisk Reservoir. But the prices on Rublevka are unreasonably high, and for quite a long time now he has not been able to find a buyer," says the expert.

"There is no exodus of residents from Barvikha and Zhukovka to distant New Riga, not to mention the picturesque corners of distant Gorky Highway," Dmitry Tsvetkov cools the ardor of developers of distant dachas. "Yes, there was and is demand for this real estate, and now inexpensive offers have appeared, actively promoted on the market. Mass demand has rushed towards these offers."

To the village, into the wilderness

Migration is not only happening in the suburban segment – there are daredevils who exchange their apartment for a country house. Conversations in the style of “leave the stuffy metropolis and come to us to listen to nightingales” have been going on with varying activity for more than 10 years. But there were no communications, roads and infrastructure in the Moscow region, and there are almost none. And Muscovites were in no hurry to exchange, albeit cramped, an apartment in Moscow for a house, but 50 km from the capital.

And now developers are raising this issue again. In the village of Martemyanovo (developer – OPIN) about 40% of transactions are an exchange of an apartment for a country house, Kreslavskaya claims, since the cost of an apartment in Moscow is almost equal to the cost of a house in the village.

Absolut Management has several clients who bought a country house instead of an apartment. "The house can compete in price with a 2-room apartment in a suburban area of Moscow," Anna Shishkina assures. "If before the crisis a cottage 10-15 km from the capital cost from $500,000 and up, now, thanks to the reduction in land prices and the active development of the prefabricated houses market, the cost of such a house with land is within $250,000."

Approximate calculation of the price of a house from the UK "Absolut Management": in certain areas of the Moscow region, 10-20 km from the Moscow Ring Road, a plot without a contract with utilities of 6-10 acres can be purchased for 1.6-3 million rubles. About 5 million rubles is the cost of a quickly erected house with interior decoration of 100-120 sq. m. Total 7-8 million rubles for a finished house with land, or an average of 65,000 rubles per 1 sq. m of finished area.

Alexander Dubovenko, Director of Development at Good Wood, has different calculations: in the economy class segment 50-100 km from the Moscow Ring Road, a plot costs about 1 million rubles, utilities - 500,000 rubles, a house of 150 sq. m. - 3 million rubles. Total 4.5 million rubles. "Demand is concentrated in villages where such a set is offered at a price below 4 million rubles," the expert clarifies. "The attempts of some developers to sell a plot, utilities and an economy class house for 5.5 million rubles already seem completely frivolous."

Svetlana Kondachkova, managing partner of Urban Realty, confirms that townhouses can replace apartments. “This segment continues to gain momentum even during the crisis, since townhouses are as close to Moscow as possible (up to 15 km), have all the city characteristics and are affordable (the cost of 1 sq. m., taking into account the plot and utilities in the economy segment is 60,000–70,000 rubles). The most popular purchase budget of 9–10 million rubles is the price of a 3-room apartment in Moscow.”

Some clients sell apartments they inherited, but not the apartments they live in, Gerasimov adds. Moscow apartments are rarely sold, almost never. "Countryside real estate is currently perceived as a second, additional one; no one completely refuses capital housing," he is sure.

Nevertheless, the number of permanent residence settlements is growing. According to Anna Shishkina, currently about 20% of cottage settlements in the Moscow region are designed for permanent residence, before the crisis there were no more than 5%. In the same Gagarinland, a truly remote settlement, about 30% of buyers are planning to move their parents there for permanent residence.

Sergey Tsyvin, head of the Vernadsky office of the suburban real estate department of Inkom-Real Estate:&#8239;

Get out of Shanghai

To the village, into the wilderness

Sergey Tsyvin, head of the Vernadsky office of the suburban real estate department of Inkom-Real Estate: 

On the Air: I'm Trading a Summer Cottage for a Summer Cottage