by Lidia Okorokova at 20/10/2011 20:26
Like any big city, Moscow is constantly evolving. An area that is considered downmarket today could easily be tomorrow’s trendiest neighborhood.
Since real estate prices in desirable areas are high, those on the lookout for a good deal need to be constantly looking ahead to predict which districts will become prosperous in the near future.
Making such predictions is easier in Moscow than in the capital cities of developed countries, where social movements often determine the trendiness of particular areas. In the Russian capital, it is easy-tofollow infrastructure developments that have the biggest impact on desirability.
Pushing up value
© RIA Novosti. / Alexander Vilf
An luxury apartment block near downtown Moscow’s Novy Arbat
The construction of a new metro station has a significant impact on the status of a neighborhood and on property prices.
“Strogino and Mitino are good examples of neighborhoods where housing prices increased significantly after the construction of a metro station,” Alexei Shlenov, Director General at the MIEL-Brokerage real estate agency told The Moscow News.
Both areas are located several metro stops outside the city center but have steadily rising real estate prices, due in part to their relative cleanliness and goodquality housing developments. Strogino was put on the metro map in 2008, while Mitino’s station was opened in 2009.
Experts say the highly-populated southeastern district of Maryino has all the criteria of an up-andcoming neighborhood.
“Interest in Maryino has increased significantly since a welldesigned housing development began there and two new metro stations opened in the region,” said Shlenov.
The Maryino and Bratislavskaya metro stations were opened in the mid-1990s.
Maryino’s desirability will increase further later this year with the opening of a third metro station, Zyablikovo.
Future elite hubs
© RIA Novosti. / Anton Denisov
A brand new sports complex in Strogino
Realtors say the elite segment is also still growing and there are several areas tipped to be the next hotspots for elite living.
“Major new developments are planned near Prospekt Mira, in the west and southwest of Moscow, and at the embankment of Bolotnaya Naberezhnaya,” said Alexander Ziminsky, director of elite property at Penny Lane Realty.
Always prestigious
Experts say that once an area has become prestigious, it is likely to stay that way, at least for the next five-ten years.
This is largely due to the fact that many of the neighborhoods are located in historical areas of the central district, where new construction is prohibited and living space is in short supply.
“For a long time, the areas considered most prestigious in Moscow have been the central administrative district, Kutuzovsky Prospekt, Khamovniki and the western districts,” Shlenov, of MIEL, said.
Property prices for these areas start at $8,000 per square meter beyond the Garden Ring, and around $15,000 in a trendy central district like Patriarshiye Prudy.
Real estate news
© RIA Novosti. / Pavel Lisitsyn
One of Moscow’s most expensive houses, in the central Khamovniki district
City Hall’s $ 2 billion plan
The Moscow authorities announced this week a plan to construct 13 million square meters of new housing as part of a 63 billion ruble ($2 billion) fi ve-year townplanning program until 2016.
The plan would ensure that each offi cially registered Muscovite has access to 24 square meters of housing, Sergey Levkin, head of the department of urban planning policy at Moscow City Hall told journalists Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.
The project also includes a proposal to increase the metro network by 75 kilometers to connect the new housing developments to the city.
“We aim to reduce the section of the population that doesn’t use the metro by 13 percent,” Levkin said.
Some 400,000 parking spaces will be also built in the capital in the next fi ve years in a further bid to solve the city’s overburdened infrastructure.
In addition, the plan contains clauses on renovating existing urban areas, including historic areas, and integrating urban developments on the outskirts of the city with projects in the rest of the capital.
Aside from the city government funds allotted to the program, the authorities also hope to attract investment through a public-private partnership, Levkin said.
