Residential Property in Moscow: facts, figures, tips.

[Vsevolod Tokarev]

Residential property: Net annual interest income can be considered as an excellent lie in a range of

from 6% to 7%. (Commercial property: from 12% to 14%).

(That’s my first article here. I live and work in Moscow. The information below is coming from my own experience. (I’m on my way in English language)).

In this post I discuss:

1. The perfect picture of the perfect tenant. (What they are looking for, and how much money they have)

2. Areas features of Moscow.

Let’s start!

In Moscow, your perfect tenant looks like a family with one child. (Age range of parents: from 28 y.o. to 38y.o., child from 3 y.o.). Property that meets the demands of that type of family meets the widest demand in the market.

Child is the best area anchor, This is a consequence of the education system in Russia. There is no division into primary school and secondary school as a different building. From 3 to 6 y.o. child will be in preschool (named literally “garden” in Russian). It is very difficult to get to kindergarten and no one wants to change the place. Then from 7 to 18 y.o adolescent will be in school.

Metro is the most important transport in Moscow. All social groups use the metro. At rush hour time intervals are only 50 seconds. Usually, it is 1.5 minutes. Stations are extremely clean and beautiful. If you want to be somewhere in time you must use the metro. The ideal location is in 5-8 minutes in a walk to the metro.

The best ecology is in the northwest, west, southwest part of the city. Never buy a property on the east!

In Moscow there is no organized armed crime, there is no legal opportunity to buy a lethal handgun. You feel safe in Moscow, but there are socially disadvantaged areas where is a greater risk of being robbed. Avoid these areas: 1. Golyanovo 2. Izmailovo 3. Kuzminki 4.Vykino-zulebino 5.Chertanovo 6.Konkovo

Usually an average family with one child is looking for compact 2 rooms flat (I want to specify, in Russia 2 rooms flat does not mean 2 bedrooms plus one living room, that is 2 rooms + kitchen + bathroom). Below you can see the plan of the most popular apartment:

Usually such apartments have from 480sqf to 510sqf. This is economy class housing. It looks like:

  the interior of flat in that building usually looks like this:

The average family in Moscow has an income from 20.000$ p.y. to 35.000$ p.y. and they are able to pay a month from 550$ to 1000$.

Summarizing:

We need a 2 room 500sqf flat with worth under 180.000$ in 5-8 minutes in a walk to the metro. It should be located in the northwest, west, southwest part of the city.

Good deals on the market we can find from 110.000$

The apartment with the location and price like this has no problems with long-term rent.

Never buy luxury real estate, because Russia hasn’t a lot of luxury peoples.

[Pat L.]

Having spent a couple of months in Moscow in the winter of  '85 (in fact Chernenko had died earlier that year), I admire your ability to live there let alone actively invest in old world infrastructure. The winter pollution at the time with constantly running diesel vehicles & coal burning heating systems was both eye watering & lung searing. But the metro was impressive.

Good luck!!