Another megaproject Moscow has grown with new territories

The authorities of Moscow and the Moscow region, at the request of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, agreed in record time on the issue of expanding the borders of the Russian capital. As a result, the area of Moscow increased by 2.4 times, and another megaproject appeared in Russia. The development of new Moscow lands will take at least 20 years and will require colossal investments, the volume of which is still unknown even approximately.
From hatred to love Territorial disagreements have been a stumbling block in relations between Moscow and the Moscow region over the past decades. Regional leaders Yuri Luzhkov and Boris Gromov took an extremely tough position on land disputes, not wanting to give each other an inch of land. It is worth noting that mainly the capital side made claims to the plots. One of the most striking examples of “land” confrontation was the scandal over land in Shcherbinka. In 2006, the capital's authorities put under the hammer a plot of 3,000 hectares located in this area. The right to develop land, which, according to Moscow officials, belonged to the city, was received by the SU-155 company. Here she was supposed to build 400 thousand square meters of housing, half of which was intended to provide apartments for military personnel. However, then the Moscow region declared its rights to the site, claiming that it had already leased part of this land, and on the other it intended to build 450 thousand “square meters” of housing.
The parties' attempts to find a compromise were unsuccessful. As a result of numerous trials, it was also not possible to establish the truth - decisions were made either in favor of Moscow or in favor of the region. At the same time, the federal authorities preferred not to interfere in the conflict. The disputes were settled only in July 2008, when the parties withdrew their mutual claims and entered into a settlement agreement. The land eventually went to Moscow.
It is not known how the relationship between the capital and the region would have developed in relation to territorial disputes with the arrival of Sergei Sobyanin as mayor of Moscow. However, it has now become clear that such disagreements can be resolved as quickly as possible. For this, the wishes of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were sufficient.
As soon as possible Dmitry Medvedev announced the need to expand the borders of Moscow in mid-June, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “In order to improve the development of the Moscow metropolis, for the purpose of creating a financial center (MFC) and to make life easier for a huge number of people, the issue of expanding the borders of Moscow may also be considered. That is, the creation of a “capital federal district” that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of Moscow,” - said the head of state. It is difficult to say which of the three goals (expanding borders, creating an MFC or improving the lives of citizens) set by Medvedev was a priority. One way or another, the task was set and the process began.

The authorities of Moscow and the Moscow region have decided on the direction of expansion of the capital. RIA Novosti infographics, author Stanislav Syretskikh (Click to enlarge) The capital and regional governments reacted quickly to Medvedev’s statement.
To begin with, the parties signed an agreement according to which they exchanged plots on which there are no citizens registered at the place of residence. As a result, Moscow received 723 hectares of land, and the Moscow region - 328 hectares. And on July 11, the president was presented with a project for a large-scale change in the boundaries of the capital.
According to the developed plan, the territory of Moscow will increase almost 2.4 times from 107 to 251 thousand hectares. The site that the region transfers to the capital is located in the southern direction and is limited by the Kyiv and Warsaw highways, as well as the Great Ring of the Moscow Railway. As a result, such large cities as Moskovsky, Aprelevka, Shcherbinka, Podolsk and Klimovsk will be on the new borders of the capital. In addition, lands in the southwest (Skolkovo) and west (Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye direction, where the International Financial Center will be located) can be annexed to Moscow.
In connection with the increase in borders, it will be necessary to make significant changes to the General Plan for the Development of Moscow until 2025, which came into force in June last year. In particular, Chairman of the Moscow City Duma Vladimir Platonov said that the General Plan will change simultaneously with the creation of the capital federal district. He also noted that the laws of the capital will apply in the new territory and the authorities will have to resolve the issue of providing Moscow benefits to residents living in the new territory.
In addition, changes will also affect the development program of the Moscow transport hub. According to Deputy Mayor for Transport and Road Infrastructure Development Nikolai Lyamov, this will solve the problem of traffic jams in the city center.
Sergei Sobyanin, commenting on the increase in the patrimony under his jurisdiction, noted that the territory of Moscow has exhausted its potential resource for development. “Therefore, it was necessary to make a decision to expand the borders of Moscow, taking into account the instructions given by the president about the possible transfer of federal government institutions to other territories. But besides this, of course, it is necessary to consider the issue more broadly, I mean solving the problems of housing, social construction, transport problems, etc. In general, this decision will make it possible to change the entire vector and strategy of development of the Moscow region for the coming decades,” the mayor said.
In turn, Boris Gromov did not agree with the statement that land was being taken away from the region in favor of the capital. “In return, we get that beyond the borders of the Moscow Ring Road towards the Moscow region, the development of territories that did not have the same price as today will begin. With the development of Moscow, with the transfer of such a large area to the capital, the cost of land around this new formation naturally increases,” - said the governor.
Large-scale plans Plans for the development of new territories are global. It is proposed to build 105 million square meters of real estate on them, which is almost 10 times higher than the current figure (12 million square meters). Of these, 60 million square meters will be for housing construction (about 2 million people are planned to be resettled here), and the rest will be for public and business areas.
New areas for housing construction should be a breath of fresh air for Moscow. The dense development of the capital led to the fact that it was proposed to build residential real estate on industrial zones subject to renovation. New Moscow lands, as Sobyanin emphasized, will not be built up as densely as Moscow.
The reform of the transport network assumes that the city will have to move from a radial-ring system “to an orthogonal structure.” In particular, three new highways will be built in the city (highways connecting the outskirts of the city, but not passing through the center), the Moscow Ring Road and the adjacent areas will be reconstructed. It is also planned to launch a metro line to Skolkovo, extend the Sokolnicheskaya line from the Yugo-Zapadnaya station to Troparevo and Rumyantsevo, and the Butovskaya line to Kommunarka.
As stated by Deputy Mayor and head of the Moscow construction complex Marat Khusnullin, the capital will need about 20 years to develop and develop the annexed lands. More precise dates, according to him, can be announced after changes to the General Plan of the capital.
Pros and cons It is obvious that such a large-scale project will bring benefits to some and inconvenience to others. According to Georgy Dzagurov, CEO of Penny Lane Realty, the main winners will be developers close to federal structures, state banks and other government officials. A number of developers, according to him, may finally lose the opportunity to coordinate projects and will be forced to leave the market.
Experts also expect a sharp tightening of construction rules in new territories, since the requirements for construction standards and the creation of a documentary base will rise to Moscow standards. In addition, analysts predict that housing prices here will gradually increase by 20-50 percent. The factor of proximity to Moscow, in turn, may affect the rise in prices in remote cities of the Moscow region.
Developers surveyed by RIA Novosti also expect an increase in the cost of housing in the area. Dmitry Losev, General Director for Development of the Scale Group of Companies, believes that now prices will increase by 10-20 percent, and for further growth it will be necessary to publish specific plans for the development of territories and determine the rules of development. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Moscow Mortgage Center group of companies Andrei Ryabinsky believes that a second powerful jump in prices can be expected in 2-2.5 years.
Developers also draw attention to the fact that it is not yet clear which territories will de jure go to Moscow. This issue is really important for construction companies, as it is related to the cadastral value of land, the tax burden, the procedure and timing for obtaining permits. Until there is clarity on this issue, a number of developers plan not to begin designing new projects.
The INCOM corporation Lente.Ru-Nedvizhimost stated that the development of Moscow in the corridor between the Kievskoye and Warsaw highways looks very logical, since a number of megaprojects were designed here (in particular, A-101 and Bolshoye Domodedovo). They have been worked out in detail, and it is obvious that Moscow is implementing them in one form or another in the capital’s territories. According to analysts, after the development of this area is completed, the agglomeration will develop in other directions around Moscow.
The experts of the portal “GdeEtotDom.Ru” agree with them. They note that on the surface lay the territorial development of the capital to the west, where a significant part of the Russian elite lives, but this may not have been in the interests of landowners close to the authorities and the elite living there. In addition, in the western direction there is practically no land free from development.
According to the forecasts of Tatyana Reshnyak, general director of the Glavmosstroy-real estate company, in the near future projects on sale will rise in price by 15-20 percent. This can be taken advantage of by buyers who will now invest in the purchase of apartments in order to later take advantage of rising prices.
The head of the analytical center of the OPIN company, Ekaterina Lobanova, notes that the promising capital territory has the following composition in terms of land categories: 48 percent - agricultural land, 36 percent - land of settlements, more than half of the remaining area is forest land. In her opinion, if undeveloped land (about 70 thousand hectares of agricultural land) is used for residential and commercial development, this will lead to a complete redistribution of the market for both multi-storey urban and suburban real estate. “The cost of cottages and land plots in the new territory may exceed 50 percent. According to her, the prestige of the Novorizhskoe highway will not suffer, but prices on other traditionally elite routes (Minskoe, Pyatnitskoe, Dmitrovskoe highway) will be adjusted,” the expert said.
Remembering the main thing The decision to expand the borders of Moscow was made in truly record time. Dmitry Medvedev, who has recently regularly reprimanded officials for failure to fulfill or slow execution of their instructions, should clearly be pleased with the leaders of the capital and Moscow region.
Meanwhile, it is worth understanding that in essence we are talking about a fundamental decision, the formalization of which will require a huge number of various approvals and amendments to numerous federal and local laws. Officials will need to decide not only on the borders, but also on the status of cities and settlements that suddenly became part of the capital. There is no answer yet to the main question - who and to what extent will finance the development of new Moscow lands. And these are just financial and legal tasks. After their decision, a gigantic construction project should begin, the participants of which have also not yet been identified. In general, there are still many more questions than answers. It is only clear that a new megaproject has appeared in Russia. Now the main thing is that there is simply enough money for its implementation, because there is also the Olympics, the World Cup, and the creation of the International Financial Center. We probably shouldn’t forget about pressing matters - the state’s social obligations, healthcare, agriculture, housing and communal services, education - and the list goes on, as they say.