The popularity of housing in New Moscow and the Moscow region has fallen

Statistics confirm the growing trend. According to the Real Estate Market Indicators, in “old” Moscow prices increased by 0.8% in November (plus the same amount in October), reaching an average of 269 thousand rubles per square meter.

There is growth in the Moscow region, but it is symbolic. Last month, the cost of a “square” increased by 0.3% (to 154 thousand) – after a decrease of 0.2% in October. In New Moscow, prices have remained the same for the second month (203 thousand rubles).

The head of the analytical center, Oleg Repchenko, says that in the secondary market within the Moscow Ring Road, a slight increase in prices is at least supported by the remaining buyers with mortgages approved at “summer” rates (before the key rate is raised), but there is no longer enough demand for New Moscow and the region.

Urbanist Ilya Zalivukhin says that there is nothing surprising in the current situation; it has been brewing for a long time.

“People who are offered to buy an apartment in a multi-storey building outside the city, be it Moscow, St. Petersburg or Tyumen, increasingly refuse,” comments Ilya Zalivukhin. — It makes sense to live in apartments either in the city center or in polycentric areas (such as VDNH, Sokolniki, Izmailovo, Fili, Sokol). It takes an hour and a half to travel from Kommunarka to the center by car, and two by metro. Why such a life? People have begun to understand this; the thrill of buying your own home is fading. Therefore, housing in multi-storey buildings outside the city will continue to become cheaper. Sales have already started to stop. We will continue to see a crisis in the purchase of high-rise buildings outside the Moscow Ring Road. People are purchasing such housing less and less.

Such housing will only be sold while it is new, the expert continues. As soon as the cost of operation increases, the price of housing automatically falls. In addition, suburban multi-storey development cannot be oriented towards travel by private cars – only by high-speed public transport.

On the outskirts of Moscow, beyond the Moscow Ring Road, people are fighting for parking spaces. In courtyards, they are usually free, but due to the huge number of residents of high-rise buildings, it is not always possible to find a place for a car in the evening after work. It happens that drivers have to drive around neighboring yards, moving away from their home by more than one hundred meters. The car becomes a suitcase without a handle.

“New Moscow is a fairly remote territory, despite the availability of public transport,” says Konstantin Aprelev, vice-president of the Russian Guild of Realtors. — There are still not enough shopping and social facilities there, so the difference in price with “old” Moscow is understandable. In New Moscow, mostly economy-class housing is being built; “business” is practically absent. And in “old” Moscow there are houses of any class; The territory is provided with all necessary facilities, and improvement is constantly underway. Many people who settled in the region during the coronavirus pandemic and lived in their dachas returned to Moscow because the area is becoming more and more comfortable.

Another factor that pushes buyers away from New Moscow is the not always decent quality of housing. Konstantin Aprelev argues that even the high price initially set by the developer does not provide any guarantees: “The quality of housing in new houses, which are present in large numbers in New Moscow, can differ dramatically. Basically we are talking about sites that were transferred from some developers who could not financially support the project to others. Such “interception” of an object, as a rule, negatively affects the quality of the structure. The worst thing is when a developer comes in with no experience: that’s where there are a lot of design errors and mistakes in the construction itself.”

It happens that due to a lack of money, instead of traditional window frames, frames are ordered, which are installed taking into account the fact that they will also be additionally covered with a ventilated facade. But the project does not provide for a ventilated façade. Leaks begin in apartments, at joints, an expert gives an example.

— New Moscow does not compete with “old” Moscow, it competes with the Moscow region. An important plus is Moscow social benefits, including medical and pension benefits. But the main thing is a high level of transport accessibility. It is this indicator that greatly influences the price. And, by the way, it is the poor transport accessibility in “old” Moscow that allows buyers to purchase an apartment at a price much lower than the market price, comparable to the cost of housing in the suburbs, continues Konstantin Aprelev.

In old Moscow there are areas where you can buy a good one-room apartment on the secondary market for 9 million rubles (with an average price in Moscow of 10.4 million). But it will be located in a 3-5-story building, not a brick building, but a panel building, the distance from the metro is 10-15 minutes by bus. You can also find an apartment in the same buildings for 8 million rubles – for example, on the first floor, 20-25 minutes from the metro. In the Moscow region, prices for a one-room apartment are 6-7 million rubles, in New Moscow – 7-8 million.

In the near Moscow region and in New Moscow, people feel on the outskirts primarily due to lagging social and transport infrastructure, our interlocutors emphasize. There are cities in the Moscow region that the metro has almost reached (Lyubertsy, Reutov), ​​but there are few of them. Most often, you have to get from the metro station to your home another 20–25 minutes by bus.

But it’s not even a matter of time. Go during rush hour to any area on the outskirts of Moscow and see how people get to the suburbs, located even five kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. There are crowds of people at the stops, the buses are overcrowded.

It seems like there are several bus stops from home to the metro station, but each trip is like a punishment, and the metro ride to work usually takes at least an hour.

If we take, for example, the areas outside the Moscow Ring Road that belong to “old” Moscow (Zhulebino, Mitino), they are in principle comparable to the areas of New Moscow – the same predominantly economy-class buildings, the same good transport accessibility. But these areas have a big advantage: competent, very high-quality territorial planning with an eye to the future: clear, like clockwork, public transport.

“Municipal administrations need to think not about building new areas, but about developing old ones,” says Ilya Zalivukhin. — It makes sense to develop individual housing construction near Moscow — in Krasnogorsk, in Podolsk. The official policy now is to build more square meters. And what needs to be built is not more square meters, but infrastructure – transport, parks, sewerage. And only the state can be an investor.

— What do you recommend to potential home buyers? — we ask Konstantin Aprelev.

“My advice is to take a break until the fall of next year,” the analyst answers. — Place your savings on deposits, this can be done at 15% per annum. There is no point in jumping up and frantically buying something, especially without having the full amount in hand. It’s better to wait out nine months in a rental apartment than to regret a bad purchase for the rest of your life.