MOSCOW

Moscow Luxury Property Market

Moscow very quickly joined the ranks of the most expensive cities in the world thanks to the global financial and commodity booms of the early 2000s, with the luxury property market booming, as Moscow became home to more billionaires than any other city in the world (74). In Moscow’s case, the luxury home market is driven by commodities rather than the financial markets, and the number of independent billionaires dropped sharply during 2008/9 as the economy contracted and the Russian government was forced to bailout many industries, taking preferred stocks to prevent foreign banks from becoming major shareholders.

Moscow, like many European cities, has a circular design. The Kremlin stands at the central point of the city. It is then encircled by the Boulevard Ring or Bulvarnoye Koltso, which in turn is located inside the next outer ring, the Garden Ring, or the Sadovoye Koltso. The most sought-after residential neighborhoods are located inside the Garden Ring. These include the Patriarchy Ponds, Chystye Prudy, Tverskaya and Arbat-Kropotkinskaya areas. One of the most famous areas of Moscow, the Rublevo-Uspenskoye highway is home to many of Russia’s political and business elite, with luxurious property to rival anything in the world and prices to match. Real estate within a short distance from or overlooking the iconic landmarks of the communist era are also much in demand, and an apartment close to the Kremlin set a new price record in 2008. The “Golden Mile,” claims the largest volume of luxurious housing and includes Ostozhenka, Soymonovsky Lane, Prechistenskaya Embankment and Khilkov Lane.

Although there are a number of smaller suburbs being created around the new administrative centers such as Krasnogorsk, Mytischi and Khimi, as Moscow expands and absorbs out-lying towns and villages, and the definition of what constitutes luxury property in Moscow is changing fast. One of the previous defining factors was the amount of apartments in a block; with an increasing need for economies of scale, larger blocks are becoming acceptable.

While townhouses have been an ordinary phenomenon in the West for centuries, the first townhouses appeared in Moscow only recently. The intensive construction of townhouses started in 2001 whereas the main concept of such projects is to build a new type of housing estate in Moscow that will meet with the Western criteria. There is still a limited supply of quality out-of-town properties that have such advantages as their location inside the city in a green and environmentally safe area. Syetun Residential Community luxurious units make up Moscow's most established and centrally located townhouse community. While being only minutes away from the centre of Moscow, Syetun is located near some Moscow's largest parks.