Why do they sell houses on the ruble? Leave Rublyovka. Why are officials and businessmen selling mansions in the Moscow region? Who is there and for how long

A dozen years ago, Russian rich people began to get rid of mansions in the elite suburbs of Moscow. Due to the crisis, the demand for expensive country real estate has decreased significantly, especially interest in cottages and interiors in the style “a la Versailles” has faded. On the famous Rublyovka, hundreds of empty family estates are now up for sale. Among them there are both cottages for the price of a plot, and ultra-expensive examples, the prices of which reach cosmic heights.

The village of Mayendorf Gardens occupies one of the first places in the ranking of the most prestigious lands in the Moscow region. On the former territory of the Barvikha sanatorium, in a pine forest, there are fashionable residences of rich and famous Russians. The most expensive of them is now up for sale for almost $60 million ($22,730 per square meter).

As stated in the ad, the house was designed and built according to individual project in Provence style under the direction of an Italian architect. The interiors convey the atmosphere of the 19th century, while the house is equipped with modern engineering components and a “smart home” system.

The stated price, of course, includes a plot of 1 hectare. Landscaping work has been completed here, and there is an automatic lawn watering system. The landscaping is complemented by an antique-style fountain and trees of Far Eastern and South Sakhalin species specially brought from Germany.

In the basement there is a hall, a safe room and a wine cellar. On the ground floor there is an entrance hall, a dressing room, a room for pet care, 2 bedrooms with bathrooms, a living room with a fireplace and a home cinema, a dining room, a kitchen, a technical kitchen, a pantry. There is also a spa area: a 25-meter pool with a depth of 2.8 meters, a Finnish sauna and a solarium.

The second floor consists of two blocks. The master block has a large bedroom with a fireplace, a bathroom and a bathroom, women's and men's dressing rooms, an office with a work space, a meeting room, a relaxation area with a fireplace, and access to a large terrace. The second block has a bedroom with a fireplace, a terrace, and a tea room. The blocks are connected by halls with recreation areas.

Residents of Rublyovka notice that the houses around them are empty. People are leaving: some to England and Switzerland - closer to their children, some to Moscow - closer to work

This fall, many residents of cottage villages on Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway were missing neighbors. “The neighbor has an apartment in London, they have already received passports and live, if not in London, then at the dacha in France,” says the businessman, who himself lives either in Russia or in the UK. - Behind another fence, a neighbor sent his wife and small child abroad. When his wife is abroad, he lives in an apartment in Moscow. If you walk around the village, less than half of the people who moved in 10 years ago remain. The rest, one way or another, stopped living there permanently.”

“My daughter goes to school here,” says the wife of another businessman. - At one time, the Khodorkovskys, Berezkins, Gromov’s daughter, the Aleshkins from Sberbank, and Dvorkovich studied at this school. It was impossible to get into this school before. And now, from three groups in which there were 60 people, they have made two groups of 24 people each - the rest have gone abroad.” It turns out that 20% of children left school.

The private school “President” has existed in Rublyovka since 2003. When asked by a correspondent whether Rublyovka is really emptying out, Lyubov Mashina, the director of the “President” school, sadly confirms that “some families are leaving abroad.” According to Mashina, in the new school year, 21 families out of 300 students last year left the school (she says “family” because parents, according to her, are actively involved in the life of the school, including financially). Thus, 7% of students left the President school. “I write recommendations to them and see that they are going to study abroad, mainly in England,” says Mashina. This is true, confirms a Russian businessman who has lived in England for a long time: “If three years ago in English schools, scattered throughout the country, there were 2-3 Russian high school students (college level) per class, now there are 5-6.”

“Well, what else are you doing here?”

Sellers of ruble services are also noticing an outflow of customers.

“Each market has its own working year. The working year of the personnel search market begins together with the academic year, i.e. on September 1. Everyone living here has the opportunity to send their family for the summer to Cyprus or Greece, where they have a second home,” says Viktor Astashov, director of the Na Rublyovka recruitment agency. “By September 1, everyone usually arrives.” Not everyone returned this year.

For one house, according to Astashov, there are from 3 to 10 service personnel. Since 2003, his agency’s revenue has grown by 20-25% per year and in 2007 reached a record 1 million rubles. per month. “Let’s take 2007 as a basis,” the businessman argues, “nothing was foreshadowed, everything was smooth, everything was in the money, everything was beautiful. 2008 - a drop of 20% compared to 2007. 2009 - minus 30-40% compared to 2007. 2010 was not bad, closer to 2008.” But 2011 will be perhaps the worst: due to the autumn outflow of clients at the end of the year, the drop in turnover by 2007 will be 50%. “I have friends who do landscaping here and sell real estate, but everyone’s income has fallen,” says Astashov.

According to the businessman, his old Rublevo clients do not forget him: he recently was looking for a nanny for a family who remained to live in Spain: “They asked me to send them a person of my choice - when I work with my family, I already know the tastes. The children already go to school there and don’t want to go back for any money. Firstly, there is excellent education there, and secondly, there are no bribes there and in general everything is smooth.”

The businessman's wife joins the chorus of pessimists. “I go out to a cafe, someone I know sees me and says: “Well, what else are you doing here? You have a normal family, your husband earns money. Why are you sitting here? What are you catching? These are the phrases. Clearly everyone is afraid of something, transferring funds, withdrawing capital, transferring children. Everyone who can takes their families abroad.”

“Are you lost? Can I help you?"

Barvikha Luxury Village, the shopping Mecca of Rublyovka, spreads over 80,000 sq. m. In this area equal to 10 football fields international class, everything that a ruble person might need is on sale: expensive jewelry, watches, clothes from the world's leading fashion houses, premium cars.

But in the parking lot in front of the “luxury village” there are almost no expensive cars: a couple of Porsches and Mercedes and two dozen middle-class models: Ford, Kia, Volkswagen - residents of elite cottage villages do not drive these.

In empty pavilions, sales consultants chat casually with each other; They don’t want to answer the correspondent’s questions: they send him to the press service, or even just politely show him the door. And only the saleswoman from children’s Gucci readily reported that her boutique’s business had taken off after moving to a separate salon: “We have at least 15 customers a day.”

During the 30-40 minutes that the correspondent spent at Barvikha Luxury Village, she was the only visitor local stores. “Are you lost? Can I help you?" - asks the policeman.

“Our clients are there,” the Barvikha Luxury Village press service cheerfully answers when Vedomosti asks how traffic and revenue have changed. “You need to understand that luxury is a special segment; it is impossible to imagine a long line for expensive jewelry,” explains the press service employee. - The number of visitors depends on the day of the week and time of day. There are more buyers on weekends, and on weekdays in the afternoon.” It seems that the day the correspondent chose was, like the grenades in the famous film, “of the wrong system.”

“I think that, by definition, trade in luxury products here is unprofitable,” Astashov argues. - But these brands should be here. How can Maserati not be represented here? If not on Rublyovka, then where?”

7 km from the “luxury village”, in Gorki-2, there is another shopping mall, simpler - “Our Department Store”, there is a communications salon, a beauty salon and much more, in particular the “Wild Orchid” boutique, the “Green Crossroads” supermarket. The parking lot is filled with cars, some of them expensive.

At the beginning of 2011, the Rublevsky “Perekrestok” was reformatted from regular “blue” to premium “green”. “After the rebranding, traffic, of course, became a little lower, but due to changes in the assortment, the average bill increased by 30%,” said Elena Gulyaeva, representative of the “green” format at X5 Retail Group. She did not provide absolute data.

“Wild Orchid” noticed an outflow of visitors at the end of October 2011. “You know, maybe this is our case, of course, but... there is some kind of decline, or something,” shares the president and co-owner of the chain, Alexander Fedorov. “The decline is expressed both in the number of buyers - there are fewer purchases, and in a decrease in the average bill.” However, Fedorov does not rule out that the problem is not in the clients, but in the image of the network: “Wild Orchid” filed for bankruptcy.

"This is a personal matter"

Of course, it's not just about suitcase sentiment. Some were tired of the fact that the highway was constantly blocked and they couldn’t get to work; others found it more convenient and cheaper to live on Novorizhskoe Highway. Former editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Na Rublevka” Eduard Dorozhkin says that he does not notice any outflow, but admits that “people who simply do not have the means to live there may leave Rublyovka.” He adds that in Rublyovka there is a periodic change of officials living in state dachas: when some retire, new ones take their place. “For example, Luzhkov’s team is being removed, a very significant number of city functionaries are leaving, there were a lot of structures in the city that were closely tied to the mayor’s office. And now someone is leaving for the West,” says Georgy Dzagurov, general director of Penny Lane Realty.

“What’s the story with the oligarchs, let’s think logically,” suggests Astashov. - It is impossible to be an oligarch and not be friends with the authorities. Right? If everything is fine with your government, why leave?” But really, why?

According to Astashov’s observations, families of middle-level businessmen are leaving. “There are, of course, among my acquaintances those who left Rublyovka to live abroad, but, judging by my surroundings, there are not very many of them, and yes, these are businessmen,” confirms the president of the A3 company, Alexey Volin. “These are high-level managers,” this is how the wife of another businessman puts it.

Why are they leaving? “I think this is mature, mature, and then the crisis pushed it: in the summer of this year, when the markets were shaking... And then they began to slowly collapse. And they motivate it like this: this country is already fed up, tired of everything,” shares Astashov. Why are they leaving? “I won’t talk about the reasons, this is a personal matter, you understand,” says Mashina and does not rule out the possibility that there is a brain drain.

In fact, it seems that this is not a brain drain, but a drain following the brains. “Those who got rich in the 1990s and settled on Rublevka, they are getting old, children from there are moving abroad - all the people who have houses on Rublevka have the opportunity to buy a house in England and Switzerland. As a rule, children who studied abroad do not return,” says Astashov.

“Young people after school, who somehow came here - for long English courses or to study at the Royal College of Art, do not want to come back,” agrees a businessman living in England. - After a year of study, mothers come to the students to live nearby, some of them manage to find work. Then the dads move in with the moms.”

When leaving abroad, not many people sell their houses on Rublevka - realtors do not record any surges in the market (see the sidebar “They are leaving, but they are not renting out”). But this is understandable, the interlocutor believes: “The owners are the same. But in fact, you drive and see that the windows are empty, there is no one, there are no cars. If these people had a need to sell real estate, they would sell it, and some new Russian official would buy it.”

“One of my acquaintances, who recently left, lives in Italy with his family and does business here from time to time. People continue to earn money here, but just in case they try to take their family out or create a base and have reliable rears in the West,” concludes the businessman’s wife.

We continue the conversation about the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway - the second of those that we are considering as part of the series on destinations near Moscow. What kind of houses are here, how much do they cost and why are the residents of Rublyovka increasingly deciding to change their place of residence?

Interesting statistics

Last time we stopped at a portrait of a typical resident of Rublyovka, today we will start with a portrait of a typical local village. According to Alexey Kudryavtsev, head of the analytical service MIAN-Real Estate Agency, the average area of ​​such a village is 15 hectares. But this is exactly the case (by analogy with the “average temperature in the hospital”) when it is pointless to rely on the arithmetic average: the spread of values ​​is too large - from 0.55 (Laikovo) to 100 hectares (Nikolino). Most often there are settlements with an area of ​​1 hectare, the number of houses is 42. At the same time, 45% of all settlements have no more than 20 houses (in the general Moscow region this is a small figure). And only 10% of villages are designed for 100 or more houses (which is typical for a business class offer).

The average size of a cottage exceeds 520 sq.m., the most offers are from 500 to 750 and from 250 to 500 sq.m. At least 56% of houses on Rublevka are built of brick, plastered mansions - 17%. Wooden houses and cottages, different parts of which (basement, first and subsequent floors) are made of different building materials– 11 and 12% respectively. A third of the villages (more precisely, 34.9%) local area at least 20 acres, in 55.4% of cases - from 20 to 50 acres.

Golden weave

The price for this same hundred square meters can reach up to $300 thousand (but such offers are not put on open sale; these are, for example, plots in Zhukovka and the Barvikha sanatorium), on average it is slightly above $30 thousand per hundred square meters. According to the Miel company, in open retail sales on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway, the price tag for one hundred square meters is approximately as follows: from $12,500 (in the area of ​​the village of Goryshkino) to $75,000 (in the area of ​​​​Zhukovka and Barvikha). And these prices are by no means static. “With the general rise in land prices, the rise in prices for ruble lands can reach 80% per year or more,” says Vladimir Yakhontov, deputy general director of the Miel-Country Real Estate company. For example: if in June last year one hundred square meters in the Rublevo-Uspensky direction cost an average of $17,108, and sq. m of cottage - $3340 (this is already data from MIAN), then a year later, in June 2007, this is already $31971 and $6535, respectively.

If we ignore the average price and look at specific villages, we will see the following. A more modest offer (business class, however, with a noticeable adjustment to the geography of the location: in the “Rublevo” sense, these are houses from $900 thousand to $1800 thousand) - this is, for example, a townhouse village in Barvikha-club on the 12th kilometer of Rublevo -Uspenskoe Highway (section price - from $1,430 thousand to $2,900 thousand). The other pole is the club cottage community “Hermitage Village”, 20th kilometer of Rublyovka. Home ownership here already costs from $11 million to $12.5 million. Market participants surveyed by “Owner” noted “New Lapino” (19 km) for 7 houses, “Ten Yards” (5 km) for 10 houses (from $2 million for each), “Uspensky Les” (24 km) for 34 houses (the same business class from $1.5 million per cottage), “Papushevo” (24 km; from $2,700 to $11,560 per sq.m.) , Barvikha Village (10 km; $3500-4000 per sq.m.), and, of course, the Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye megaproject (3 km from the Moscow Ring Road).

But, as Blackwood executive director Maria Litinetskaya notes, neither existing settlements nor the current pace of construction can eliminate the existing supply shortage: “Currently, new settlements on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway appear less frequently, which also reduces the volume of supply, while demand still great. However, the level of real estate prices in the Rublevo-Uspenskoe direction is forming a new trend: the purchase land plots, which are a cheaper alternative to cottages,” says Litinetskaya.

But Alexey Kudryavtsev, on the contrary, believes that the peak demand for land has already passed along the Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway. “And it’s not at all because there are no more millionaires,” says Kudryavtsev, “the main reason is the lack of successful offers. The best lands with forest areas have already been sold, and those that are in private ownership legal entities, enter the market at obviously inflated prices.”

The most expensive land plots are sold, according to the expert, in the villages of Romashkovo (5 km from the Moscow Ring Road), Barvikha and Zhukovka (8 km), Usovo (12 km), Gorki-2 (15 km), Uspenskoye (20 km), Nikolina Gora (24 km).

Migrant millionaires

The Rublevo-Uspenskoe direction accounts for about 30-40% of the total demand for luxury suburban real estate. On the other hand, since the beginning of the year the number of applications for it has decreased by 20-25%. The press secretary of the ComStrin company, Alina Andreeva, even notes the trend of migration of wealthy Rublyovsky residents from their homes: “Now the eyes of many are directed to the Novorizhskoe direction, the highway is wider there, houses are cheaper and there are also pine trees. Kaluzhskoye Highway is also interesting for displaced people.”

Is this due to the fact that Rublyovka has, in fact, turned into a mini-Moscow, or is it because of the famous traffic light at the intersection of Rublevo-Uspenskoye and Krasnogorskoye highways (whoever has been there knows that because of it you can lose an extra hour even in relatively quiet weekend), the fact remains: a kind of “migration of millionaires” is already an established trend. The number of people leaving Rublyovka is still disproportionately small compared to the number of people arriving.

However, the land is not rubber, it is growing in price, because someday it will run out. Or the forest will be completely cut down, but then Rublyovka will cease to be so alluring, because there are fields everywhere, but pine trees - not.

Market discounts suburban real estate“elite” class prices today reach 50% of pre-crisis prices, say the Kalinka Group. Thus, expensive mansions can be purchased with a profit of up to $15 million. For $20 million instead of the original $35 million, you can buy a mansion with an area of ​​1,500 square meters. meters, located 7 km from the Moscow Ring Road. At the same time, the company calculated that 90% of houses built in the early 2000s are offered at a discount.

Once such objects were symbols of luxury and prosperity, but today they do not meet the requirements of buyers. IN general structure supply, the share of such houses is up to 85%.

Today's buyers want modern architecture, practical space, and multiple closets and bathrooms. Accordingly, owners have to provide large discounts in order to sell obsolete properties.

“Properties built during the 2000s and occupying a large niche in the market lose out from a design point of view modern house, firmly entrenched in the minds of customers,” say Kalinka Group. Buyers do not want to put up with renovations in the spirit of palace interiors and Versailles. Realizing that houses are standing idle, requiring increasing maintenance costs, many owners reduce prices in order to find a client.

“For example, we recently sold a property in Rozhdestvenno, its starting price was $12 million, and the transaction price was $2.6 million,” Oleg Mikhailik, deputy director of the luxury residential real estate department at Knight Frank, gives an example from practice.

According to him, the trend of providing large discounts has been traced since 2014, when some owners decided to get rid of their assets in Russia and go to live abroad. Accordingly, if a person living in Europe only has a house in Russia on Rublyovka and it is not being bought for $10 million, he is ready to get rid of it and sell it for $5 million.

“It cannot be said that large discounts are a general trend in the suburban market; modern, high-quality houses are sold at a discount of 10-15% from the starting price,” adds Mikhailik.

The minimum discount today is 20%, the chairman of the board of directors of Kalinka Group gives his figures.

One way or another, there is a trend. There are not many modern properties on Rublyovka, and buyers rarely agree to consider secondary offers for reconstruction. Only a significant discount can convince them. “According to our data, about 75% of purchase requests come in relation to finished houses, says Rumyantseva.

In addition to the discount, some owners are willing to give up another 10% if there is real interest in their home. This applies to cases where the cost of lots is close to the cost of land.

Buyers who do purchase houses from the “heyday of Rublyovka” often do so with the goal of complete reconstruction or new construction on the acquired site, says Rumyantseva.

There are no open discounts, Nadezhda Khazova clarifies, CEO exclusive real estate agency "Usadba". Initially, houses are offered at a high price, but if the buyer is really interested, the price is reduced to 50%. However, this only applies to houses built in the late 90s - early 2000s, which are obsolete. Usually,

they are too large in area (more than 800 sq. m), located not in the most good places, sometimes not in centralized villages, sometimes without security (in villages that require individual security). In addition, such facilities are very expensive to maintain (more than 120 thousand rubles per month).

True, there are realtors on the market who disagree with this assessment of discounts. “In fact, the “extra discount” of 50% is nothing more than an exchange rate difference due to the depreciation of the ruble in 2014. If we compare dollar prices, the difference in cost compared to 2014 actually reaches 50%,” says Ilya Menzhunov, director of the luxury real estate department at Metrium Group.

The expert notes that based on the results of the summer of 2017, the average proposal budget for Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway shows positive dynamics. In particular, in June 2017 average price amounted to 347.2 million rubles, in July - 357.4 million rubles, in August - 359 million rubles. “That is, over the course of three months, the owners have been confidently raising prices,” adds Menzhunov.

As for modern facilities, they have only become more expensive within the Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. “For example, a house of 700 square meters with turnkey finishing, furniture and a plot of 30 acres now costs $7.3 million. A year ago its price was $6.4 million. Annual growth reached 14% or $900 thousand. The property is located in the village “ Barvikha XXI,” Menzhunov cites a case from practice.

The expert also points out that economic situation is reflected in the level of purchasing activity in the segment of suburban luxury housing. Stabilization of key indicators has a positive effect on customer interest.

“Demand will recover. The absence of high volatility and open external conflicts with other countries only contributes to the activation of pent-up demand formed over the past three months,” hopes the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru.

Buyer preferences remain the same - a house of 250-300 sq. m. m, newly renovated, on a plot of 20 acres, in a good location, near a forest and water.

At the same time, there is a shortage in supply of really good quality houses offered at the price for which the buyer is willing to purchase them. Thus, the difference between the supply price and the demand price in the elite segment today is at least 20% percent, Khazova clarifies.

Owners of expensive houses on Rublyovka and in other areas of the near Moscow region began to abandon suburban housing.

Employees of several agencies for the sale of luxury real estate in the Moscow region told RBC Real Estate about this. According to realtors, major officials and businessmen are moving to Moscow, and they are trying to sell mansions outside the Moscow Ring Road. However, this does not always work out.

“Recently, we have noted a tendency for a significant proportion of buyers of expensive real estate to move from country house to the capital,- said the director of the city real estate sales department of the real estate company Blackwood Elena Mamaeva. - A serious problem for owners of suburban housing is transport accessibility, which forces clients to reconsider their choice in favor of urban housing. The proximity of the house to the Moscow Ring Road is not of decisive importance: as you know, the main traffic jams form when entering Moscow.”

A similar trend was recorded at the Contact Real Estate agency. "The main similarity among similar cases concerns the reasons for the sale: severe traffic jams force customers to abandon long distances. They all ate their fill sad experience, so when moving to the city they try to minimize their movements,” says Development Director of Contact Real Estate Vyacheslav Antropov.

The basic reason for changing housing is family situation. “These are mainly families with two or more children who were quite comfortable living in a cottage near Moscow until they reached school age,- explained Elena Mamaeva. - But children grow up, and priorities change: the main thing for parents is the availability of modern city schools and universities within walking distance, so they sell their country house and buy an apartment in the center of Moscow.” Reasons for sale also include divorce of spouses or family relocation abroad, said managing partner of the agency IntermarkSavills Dmitry Khalin.

Where are they moving to?

The main point of attraction for recent residents of elite cottages in the region is the center of Moscow. Here priority is given ready-made projects. The most popular area of ​​the Central Administrative District among buyers of expensive housing turned out to be Zamoskvorechye, according to estimates from the Contact Real Estate agency. Also, businessmen, officials and managers of state-owned companies are attracted by housing in Khamovniki, Ostozhenka, Plyushchikha and Yakimanka - the latter is especially in demand among officials due to its proximity to the Kremlin, realtors say. « The best option when changing a quiet country lifestyle to a noisy metropolis, small club houses and residences are needed,” - says Elena Mamaeva.

Buyers of luxury real estate are attracted to urban areas with good infrastructure, since during their stay in a suburban cottage village families are getting used to nearby fitness centers, beauty salons and other infrastructure facilities, said Vyacheslav Antropov. “The characteristics of the apartment should also not be inferior to a country house. For example, new housing could be a townhouse within the Central Administrative District or a large one-story area - at least 250 square meters. m", - explained a Contact Real Estate representative.

“For most buyers of apartments in the Central Administrative District, the area does not matter,- think Blackwood. - In the structure of demand by area range, the most in demand are apartments in the range from 101 to 150 sq. m. m. According to our company, the most popular budget in the segment of elite urban housing over the past months remains the amount of $ 1-2 million.”

Mansions are sold at a discount

The main problem faced by sellers of luxury homes in the Moscow region is the impossibility of a quick and profitable sale, according to realtors interviewed by RBC Real Estate. “The volume of supply on the luxury real estate market in the Moscow region increased by 20% compared to the fall of last year,” said the director of the country real estate department of Kalinka Group Yulia Grosheva. -Homeowners are thinking about selling in order to optimize costs. Vacation home difficult to maintain, and if this is a second or third home, then there is simply no need for it. Businesses suffer losses, many of them catastrophically. To pay off loans or meet other financial obligations, owners country houses decide to part with them.”