Parents of students began to move with them to Moscow

Stereotypes about the “conquerors of Moscow” say that people who are well settled in their homeland do not go to the capital. 52-year-old Olga Maltseva refutes these stereotypes – in her native regional center a few years ago she headed a large department. The civil service, dozens of subordinates, meetings with the governor – and all this Olga exchanged for a much more modest job as a consultant in Moscow.

And the reason for the change was Olga’s son Vitaly, who entered the capital’s university. Now he is already 23 years old, he is a successful specialist, and his mother has become, in addition, a grandmother (and does not like a soul in a newborn granddaughter).

“I remember the civil service with amazement,” says Olga. – Yes, by regional standards, this is a very cool position, we had good money, a big house. But, firstly, we still had the house, we didn’t sell it, we go there on vacation in the summer. And secondly, you can’t find such a nervous person anywhere else as in the administration: in the service, I firmly sat down on pills in order to at least fall asleep normally.

The thought of moving to Moscow and finding a quieter job visited Olga many times, but only the arrival of her son made her pull herself together and decide to part with her status. They rented an apartment in the capital only for the first year, then they took a more spacious living space on a mortgage. And now on the agenda is the construction of a cottage in New Moscow, where Olga plans to be based mainly: the habit of living in her own house does not just go away.

“The idea of ​​moving to Moscow after the children sounds like some kind of evacuation, suitcase bags and hardships,” Olga sums up. – But in general I can say that this is an option for non-poor and not weak people. I cannot advise everyone to do this, it will be easier for someone to let the child go so that he makes his way on his own. But we did it this way, we like it.

Landlords are always calmer when their parents rent an apartment for a student, the contract is concluded with them. They are also responsible for property. In this case, the owner of the apartment has a feeling of reliability and peace of mind for the safety of his property.

– As practice shows, most often one parent comes to Moscow with a student child to look for an apartment. Mom or dad helps their children adapt in a big unfamiliar city: they settle in for a month or two until the children find a part-time job, and then they visit on short trips, but they still don’t live all the time, ”says Olga Yatsevskaya, head of the rental department at MIEL Na Nikoloyamskaya.

As for part-time work, in modern conditions it has become much more convenient. There are more than enough vacancies with remote work, so it is not necessary to waste time traveling to the office. Of course, in the first months of study, while the student settles in a new place, he has the right to count on financial assistance from his parents. But, as a rule, by the second year, most young people successfully find a part-time job, and the most efficient ones get a job directly in their specialty.

Institute, rent, session

“Students-tenants can be divided into two categories,” says Yulia Dymova, director of the Est-a-Tet secondary real estate sales office. – The first includes those who rent an apartment for the academic year – from September to June. In the second – renting housing for the entire period of study.

Not all landlords are ready to provide housing only for the academic period, even if the student promises to return in a couple of months, by the new academic year.

Usually students and their parents are looking for apartments in August, when it becomes clear that the young man has passed the competition. But it is not uncommon for students to be active in September as well. As a rule, potential “autumn” tenants include those who quickly tasted the delights of life in a hostel or who did not get along with relatives, with whom they were originally going to eat during their studies.

People who rent apartments from year to year understand that demand is increasing due to students. Accordingly, due to the increase in demand, the rental rate increases even in those apartments where students are not considered. Law of the market economy: increased demand – increased price.

Proximity to the Institute automatically implies a high cost of housing. If you don’t pull the budget, go to the Moscow Ring Road, to the region or to the hostel. Of course, wealthy people, for whom it is important that the child lives in a good apartment, and next to the university, do not count money. The rest are looking for housing in accordance with the possibilities.

“Often, students, especially first-year students who have not yet found a part-time job, rent apartments together to save money,” continues Olga Yatsevskaya. – Two students – one-room, four students – two-room. Owners want to rent more expensive, tenants want to rent cheaper – a common story.

Now many students save on the agent’s commission. Thanks to social networks and service sites, the chances of finding an apartment on your own and not running into scammers are much higher than 15-20 years ago.

Admission for the whole family

19-year-old Natalya, her parents and younger brother are among the first residents of a renovated new building in the South-Western District, which is just beginning to be populated. They are residents, but not owners: the owners of the new apartment advertised ahead of time, and the family quickly reacted to this.

Before Natalya entered Moscow State University (she is going to specialize in economic geography and regional development), the family lived in the city of Chukhloma, Kostroma Region. Vladimir, her father is a truck driver, and a developer of agricultural machinery by education, her mother Elena is a teacher of biology and chemistry. And if nothing has changed for Vladimir, except for the “port of registry”, then Elena had to make a kind of downshifting from the post of head teacher to an ordinary teacher.

“All our preparations took place in June-July, we moved in August,” says Elena. – It was a pity to leave your school, but even in an ordinary position in Moscow, I got more money. With the rent of an apartment, it also turned out well, we found a house in the immediate vicinity of one of the best schools in Moscow.

True, the family has not yet received the temporary registration required for tenants – the owner of the apartment promises to do it promptly, as soon as everything is sorted out with the documents after the resettlement. But Natalia’s younger brother was accepted into the school as an exception – the mother-teacher is a great force in this case.

“To be honest, at first I thought that I would live in a hostel,” says the student. It seemed to me both funny and scary. But my mother suddenly said: after all, we had been planning to try to move to Moscow for a long time, so why not now? And as a result, we were all here.

Natalia is not thinking of staying in Moscow forever. That is why she chose the specialty “regional development”, she wants to subsequently transform her native Chukhloma, bring investments and tourism there.

Infantilism or courage

There are situations when parents come to students because of their poor academic performance in order to control the child’s education. Someone sends grandmothers for these purposes.

In Soviet times, it was customary to laugh at such cases: well, what, they say, for students that drag their parents behind them. Even Eduard Uspensky had such poems – “About Sidorov Vova”, where the mother and grandmother accompanied the boy even to the army. Now, it seems that views on such a decision have begun to change.

“Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the lack of separation from parents in this case,” says psychologist Anastasia Aleksandrova. – Normally, a young person of either sex completes his growing up by leaving his parental family, only then can he create his own. However, it may be that we are now on the verge of radical changes in this area. And the existence of a “swarm” of several generations, such a family community, may be the answer to megacity atomization.

In the traditional case, young people were not separated from their parents in a vacuum, reminds Aleksandrova. Boys socialized in male communities (army, educational institution), girls moved to another family, got married, and even before that they had enough communication with their peers. Labor collectives of the industrial time gave even more socialization than many would like.

“But now the field of such socialization has narrowed, in a metropolis a young man often finds himself alone,” says the psychologist. – In this sense, continuing to live with the family turns out to be quite a comfortable thing.

Fortunately, not all young men and women have a request for a “torn off” lifestyle these days: in us, as was said, the spirit of adventurism has disappeared.

Give up and live together

“Lessors of Moscow real estate, especially elite ones, are very distrustful of students and young tenants,” says Andrey Solovyov, regional director of the urban real estate department at Knight Frank Russia. — When people rent expensive residential real estate, then, as a rule, for them it is a source of passive income, and not a full-fledged business. They perceive the apartment as an emotional asset in which the soul is invested. In this regard, in the elite rental segment, the owners are very attentive and selective: before showing the apartment, they will ask a number of questions about the tenants, their income and occupation, and take a break to analyze the data.

We are used to the fact that in all segments of housing it is difficult to rent an apartment for people with animals or small children, but in the elite segment the requirements are much higher. Young tenants, even without children, are treated with apprehension by the owners.

Firstly, all owners are afraid of the parties that young people, frequent guests, so often arrange. Reputation in the eyes of neighbors is important, because when buying luxury housing, people also acquire the “right” neighborhood, so it is important to maintain good neighborly relations.

Secondly, the financial instability of students also causes concern for landlords. Students, as a rule, do not have a stable income, and it is not known how long their parents are willing to finance them. Any owner is always interested in a long-term lease agreement, since downtime and agency commissions for each new settlement greatly reduce the rental yield.

The way out of this situation may be to search for an apartment that has been rented out for many years (more than five), and the owners are no longer so worried about premium finishes. A potential tenant can offer an extended contract period, a double deposit and, as one of the most powerful arguments, the presence of parents when viewing an apartment and concluding a contract with a landlord. When the owner communicates with adults who guarantee him timely payment and keeping the property in proper condition, the transaction is much easier.

The other day, State Duma deputy Vasily Vlasov proposed to exempt homeowners who rent it to nonresident students from paying tax on rental income. Vlasov explained his idea precisely by the “dislike” of landlords for students. And he decided in this way to stimulate Muscovites and residents of other large cities to rent apartments to university students.

Reversed

Interestingly, a similar process sometimes goes in the opposite direction. For example, Aleksey and Nina with three children moved for permanent residence from Moscow to the village of Borisoglebsky, Yaroslavl Region (for their own people, simply Borisogleb). The reason is not only the opportunity to live in nature, next to the most beautiful old monastery. But, surprising as it may seem to Muscovites, the school is for children.

– We go to the Ivanovo school, it is 15 kilometers from the regional center, – says Nina. “This is one of the best places in the country for kids from conservative families. A wonderful psychological climate, the children are very friendly, teachers and parents, which is extremely rare now, constantly work in contact and are generally friends. Because the area is not crowded, everyone knows everyone. In general, it’s just good here, everything for life is there. Therefore, we once bought a house here as a summer cottage, and now we have decided to live here all year round.

Alexey and Nina have no problems with work – they switched to remote work, so since 2020 they don’t care where they are, there would be the Internet. It was much more difficult to overcome the indignation of their own parents: after all, “everyone goes to Moscow or abroad, and you go to some village.” But in the third year of living in Borisogleb, this was left behind: the older generation came to visit and appreciate the landscapes, and now they are thinking about buying a house for themselves.

But that, as they say, is a completely different story.