A bargain-hunter's guide to Moscow property

There are few bargains in Moscow real estate, and anyone struggling to put a roof over their head on the city’s average salary is in for a struggle. But even if you’re only earning 38,700 roubles ($1237) there could be just the place for you – for less than the usual starter price of 20,000 roubles a month ($660). However, intrepid explorers of the capital’s bargain beds need to be made of stern stuff if they are to cope with some little idiosyncracies. 

There are few bargains in Moscow real estate, and anyone struggling to put a roof over their head on the city’s average salary is in for a struggle.

But even if you’re only earning 38,700 roubles ($1237) there could be just the place for you – for less than the usual starter price of 20,000 roubles a month ($660).

However, intrepid explorers of the capital’s bargain beds need to be made of stern stuff if they are to cope with some little idiosyncracies. 

Draining the will to live

Alexei Aleshko, a real estate consultant, believes that finding a flat under 20.000 roubles “is possible, but it’s impossible to live there.” His clients always ask for cheaper lodgings and he always asks them to think again.

“I warn them that after visiting those places they might lose their desire to live not in that particular flat, but in general. After visiting a couple of such accommodations, people reconsider their rental budget.”

Sometimes miracles happen though. One of his clients was lucky to rent a flat in central Moscow for just $200 a month after she offered to pay two years of rent in advance. The landlord was going to stay abroad for two years, and wanted to sign the agreement for this period.

“But hoping to find such flat is like hoping to meet a magician,” he concludes. 

Average homes for average prices

Aleshko suggests that an average price for a habitable place inside the MKAD road should start at 25,000 roubles, which is similar to the average price of $907 for an ‘odnushka’ (a room and a kitchen) in Moscow according to the real-estate agency Miel Arenda.

This accommodation type is considered to be Moscow’s economy class lodging, and has always been the most marketable in Moscow.

“These are flats in standard type living blocks, rather small in size, soviet-era style and furniture, with the minimal set of household appliances,” Maria Zhukova, the first deputy director of “Miel Arenda” told the Moscow News.

This type of lodging could be found throughout the whole city, although some particular areas have more offers in this segment. Most of Moscow’s cheapest flats are in Southern, Eastern and South-Eastern city districts with 17.7, 15.1 and 12.3 per cent of the market correspondingly, she said. 

Terms and conditions apply

Location and quality are not the only factors to influence prices, with the small print sometimes obliging tenants to leave home for a few days when the landlord needs a pied-a-terre in the city at short notice.

“Some offers are cheap as landlords want to receive the payment for the whole year in advance, or want to use one room to store their things or unplanned visits,” says Alexander Pypin, the head of the Analytics Centre GdeEtotDom.Ru. “Sometimes people lend flats in newly-built houses with no decoration at all and want their tenants to construct everything themselves.”

Themoscownews