An apart-hotel is a way out if it is impossible to build housing / E. Kuzmina / Vedomosti

Price of apartments. 89980

rubles per 1 sq. m. is the average price of housing in the mass-market segment in the inhabited areas of St. Petersburg in November, according to Petersburg Real Estate. The average price of business-class apartments is 142,774 rubles per 1 sq. m., elite - 220,980 rubles.

According to Knight Frank St Petersburg, apartment-style housing accounts for no more than 1.5% of the total supply on the housing market (by area), and there are only six such projects for sale within the city. The main difference between apartments and flats is a professional management company that ensures the operation of the building and provides additional services similar to those of hotel operators, says Andrey Petrov, Director of the Consulting and Evaluation Department at ARIN. According to the law, apartments do not have the status of residential premises, so owners cannot obtain permanent registration in them, he reminds. This status allows developers to develop public and business zones where it is prohibited to build the most liquid and popular product on the real estate market - housing, and it is unprofitable to build shopping malls or business centers, Petrov explains.

In the fall, Baltic Monolith announced the construction of a multifunctional complex with a Docklands business center on Kim Avenue, where an aparthotel will occupy 22,500 sq. m out of 45,000 sq. m. They will be built in the loft style. The company intends to offer apartments for 120,000 rubles per 1 sq. m. Completion of construction is planned for 2016. Apartments in multifunctional complexes are still a free niche on the St. Petersburg market, while in Moscow this segment is already actively developing, says Tamara Popova, head of the real estate market research department at Knight Frank St. Petersburg. The format of apartments in business districts, as well as in large multifunctional complexes, is especially relevant in the context of a growing city and worsening transport problems, she adds.

More and more often, developers are turning projects where they previously planned to build regular hotels into apartments. For example, Plaza Lotus Group, which received funds from the city administration in 2010 for the designated purpose of reconstructing the building at 1 Marsovo Pole and 1 Konushennaya Ploshchad, is planning to open apart-hotels there, said the company's president Boris Zingarevich in November. "There will only be a few apartments for sale at Konushennaya Ploshchad, and it is not yet clear about the project at Marsovo Pole," clarified Sergey Rusakov, CEO of Plaza Lotus Group. According to him, the prices have not yet been determined.

LSR Group is planning to build an apart-hotel on Fontanka Embankment, 3A. The developer also plans to sell 28 apartments of 77-180 sq. m on the upper floors and in the attic on Nevsky, 68. In 2011, LSR acquired Avtokombalt LLC, which in 2005 received this building for reconstruction into a hotel. The first two floors will house commercial premises, finishing works are being completed at the site, the apartments will be put on sale in 2014, the price is still being determined, said a representative of LSR.

Apartment or hotel

According to Knight Frank St Petersburg, apartments in the Montferrand projects (Konnogvardeisky Boulevard, 5) cost about 350,000 rubles per 1 sq. m and in the Taleon Imperial Hotel - 1 million rubles per 1 sq. m. The Vertical, Salut, Ye's, Avenue apart projects are more designed for investment demand, says Popova. According to her, the average cost in them varies from 77,000 to 160,000 rubles per 1 sq. m and directly depends on the distance from business areas and the stage of construction. Several such complexes are being built in the Kurortny District - Crystal, Na Beregu, Kurortnye Prostory, the cost is on average about 100,000 rubles per 1 sq. m, she adds. Although apartments are not considered residential premises, they are purchased - directly or indirectly - for permanent and long-term residence, says Popova. She identifies two main niches in this format - exclusive apartments and income-generating real estate in residential areas.

In the city center, about 50% of apartments are purchased for personal residence, in other areas there are more such buyers, says Andrey Lushnikov, President of the Best Group of Companies. In the Best Avenue Apart complex, which is located between Aptekarskaya Embankment and Akademika Pavlova Street, two thirds of buyers are pursuing investment goals, says a representative of the developer. The head of the Salut project in the Moskovsky District says that most buyers buy apartments there as an alternative to housing. While investors have not yet fully understood what kind of market this is, there is no accumulated experience and many choose to buy ordinary apartments, because with the capitalization of the housing market everything is clearer, says Dmitry Titov, General Director of Mir Kvartir. Over time, there may be more investors in this segment, he predicts.

Window of opportunity

In 2014-2016, a serious surge of activity is expected in the apart-hotel market, a large number of new projects have already been announced for next year, and by 2016, when investors sort out all the mistakes, a boom can be expected, predicts Natalia Skalandis, Managing Director of PM NAI Becar. According to her, this segment is more focused on business tourists.

On the one hand, the development of this segment should have a positive effect on the development of the St. Petersburg market of tourist services and competition in the hotel business, believes Maria Smirnova, Chairperson of the Committee for Property Management. On the other hand, the practice when investors who have received real estate for the purpose of building hotels then sell the premises in them as residential does not contribute to the development of tourism and can have a negative effect on the development of the city, she believes. But Smolny today has no leverage over investors who, after fulfilling the investment conditions, become the owners of the objects they have built, adds Smirnova.

According to KUGI, the authorities are now concluding investment agreements obliging investors to maintain the functional purpose of buildings for 15 years. In order to minimize budget losses, the objects will be transferred to investors at market value.

In principle, the legislation allows for the conversion of non-residential premises into residential ones, such cases exist, but this legal practice is not well-established, says Igor Gushchev, a partner at Duvernoy Legal. So far, the state does not impose the burden of building social infrastructure on apart-hotel developers, so developers have a window of opportunity, the lawyer adds.

Lev Gnidenko, CEO of ZAO Oikumena, does not see much interest in the apartment market yet: "It should be some unique place, not necessarily in the center of St. Petersburg, where it is impossible to build housing. In all other cases, apartments are seriously inferior to ordinary apartments."

Buy with your own

Taking out a mortgage loan to buy an apartment is more difficult than for a regular apartment. Large banks are not ready to finance such transactions primarily due to the lack of proper regulation of this segment of real estate and higher risks, says Sergey Grebenyuk, head of the mortgage direction of the new buildings department at NAI Becar. Tenants can damage the property, which will affect its profitability, tourist flows may decrease and, as a result, the demand for temporary housing, he lists. Banks are in no hurry to finance the purchase of premises in apart-hotels, notes Irina Ilyasova, regional director of Delta Credit. The main risk, according to her, is that the apartments are classified as commercial premises, not residential. It will be more difficult to sell commercial premises than residential ones, so mortgage rates for such properties will obviously be higher, she adds. Over time, due to the lack of free land for housing development, the number of apart-hotels in the city will rapidly increase, and banks will adapt to the changes and will be more willing to lend for the purchase of such areas, Grebenyuk suggests. According to him, rare mortgage programs for apartments can have a down payment of about 30% of the cost of the premises and rates of 15-17% per annum.

Investments in the purchase of apartments without borrowing can pay off in 7-8 years, Grebenyuk believes. According to Knight Frank St Petersburg, the payback period for apartments can be 12-15 years with an average monthly rental price of about 800-1000 rubles per 1 sq. m. According to ARIN, renting one-room apartments in St. Petersburg in "comfort" class apart-hotels costs 23,000-40,000 rubles, two-room apartments - 25,000-45,000 rubles, three-room apartments - 27,000-60,000 rubles. In the "business" and "elite" classes, one-room apartments are valued at 60,000-70,000 rubles. per month, two-room apartments - 100,000-115,000 rubles, three-room apartments - 120,000-140,000 rubles. The risk of competition in the case when a significant number of apartments are offered for rent in one facility has not yet been fully assessed, Popova reasons. For some areas, this risk is insignificant due to the shortage of decent housing in the immediate vicinity, and then one can relatively confidently predict the demand for apartments at a fairly high rate, she adds.

According to Knight Frank St Petersburg, apartment maintenance costs 51-80 rubles per square meter. This price does not include utility costs, the rates for which are somewhat higher than usual. "Utility costs for apartments, as for other commercial real estate, are higher than for regular housing, but living in them can be more comfortable due to the provision of additional services," says Pavel Berezhnoy, executive director of the construction company "S.E.R." The company expects to receive permission in 2014 to build the Ingria Tower multifunctional complex with an apart-hotel, a shopping mall, and a business center with a total area of 65,000 square meters. Skalandis explains the higher level of utility payments by the fact that the properties are business class.

According to Best's calculations, the cost of management services at Avenue Apart is 80 rubles per 1 sq. m per month for apartments, 49.5 rubles for commercial premises and 82.35 rubles for parking (includes 24-hour porter service, cleaning, technical maintenance, garbage removal, security, ventilation and air conditioning maintenance, panic button, fire alarm system, water treatment, video surveillance system).

The hotel feels like home