The segment has been in decline for almost five years. However, the pandemic restrictions have caused a huge demand for cottages and summer cottages
The suburban housing market in the Moscow region was in a deep depression for a long time. It all started with a prolonged stagnation in 2014-2015, which affected all segments of real estate. However, if the market for urban new buildings quickly came to its senses and over the past time has managed to survive both new ups and downs, the area of suburban real estate has been in decline for almost five years. Transactions on the secondary market were made in the form of purchases of inexpensive summer cottages, and on the primary market – land plots without a contract. The market for elite cottages suffered the hardest of all: deals there could be counted on one hand over the past years.
Salvation came from where they did not expect. Trapped in four walls during the lockdown, the townspeople looked enviously towards the owners of the fence. Living in nature looked much more attractive than living within four walls in a concrete metropolis. And already in the summer of 2020, many residents of the capital, who had never previously thought about suburban life, acquired cottages and summer cottages. The wave of demand has engulfed all segments, including the premium suburban housing sector. As Oleg Mikhailik, director of the suburban real estate department at Knight Frank, recalls, in the summer of 2020, the number of requests for the purchase of expensive suburban areas almost tripled compared to 2019. And the number of transactions in the elite suburban real estate segment, carried out last summer, according to analysts from the Savills agency, increased by more than 60% compared to the summer of 2019.
This year, the desire of the townspeople to buy cottages continued to grow. The shift to remote work and study, coupled with restrictions on traveling abroad, continues to generate an enormous demand for a suburban lifestyle. In just 9 months of this year, according to analysts at Knight Frank, 197 cottages and land plots were purchased on the primary suburban market of elite housing in the Moscow region. By the end of the year, another 20-25 houses will be sold, according to the real estate agency, and as a result, the number of transactions at the end of 2021 will exceed the previous figures by 40%. At the same time, notes Nina Reznichenko, director of the Savills suburban real estate department in Russia, more and more country houses are purchased precisely as the main housing, and not a place for temporary rest.
This increased demand for permanent living outside the metropolis has faced one problem. In recent years, practically no new premium cottage residences have entered the market, so there are very few proposals on the primary suburban real estate market, according to ZIP Realty: only 16 villages.
The most interesting suburban project of the Moscow region is Birchs River Village, which is being implemented by the Hals-Development group of companies. There are a total of 151 residences in the village, but most of the residences have already been sold, with 70% of sales accounted for in the last year and a half, which, however, is not surprising. It is also quite understandable that today the village “Berezki” is one of the leaders in sales, despite the fact that the cost of lots since 2019 has increased by more than 50%.
Buyers continue to vote for him in rubles, more precisely, in millions of rubles. As a result, this year Beryozki River Village was recognized as the best elite-class village in the Moscow Region, according to the Village of the Year federal award in the field of suburban real estate.
What makes Birchs stand out in the market? First, the developer sells cottages with a very interesting bonus called “design codes”. The name is a bit mysterious, but everything is quite simple: the developer invites clients to become co-creators of their new home. The buyer first chooses a home. There are 18 concepts to choose from, all developed in the style of constructivism by the Swiss bureau Shindler + Partner, which is led by the famous European architect Daniel Schindler. The houses are already completely ready, and the buyer can only choose the style of facade decoration from the whole catalog, specially developed for Beryozok by Malikov Architectural Bureau. For each type of home, there are at least three different styles of decoration to choose from. And if you like the architectural elements from other concepts, you can safely borrow, they all go well with each other.
With this approach, on the one hand, there is no need to wait for housewarming for years, the house is ready, on the other hand, the owner residences can show their individuality. At the same time, the general style of the houses will be traced, and therefore the entire village.
Secondly, the cottage settlement “Beryozki River Village” is practically a peninsula, which is unique for Rublevka. It was built on the banks of the small river Medvedka near Moscow. The river, which flows from the southeastern side of the village, was artificially expanded during construction, a beautiful illuminated embankment was built and an artificial canal was dug, which became the northern border of Beryozok. As a result, the village was almost on a peninsula.
Geographically, Birchs are isolated, but the village has its own infrastructure: a kindergarten, a multifunctional sports complex with an indoor ice arena that operates all year round, and the school is the only Cambridge International School campus in the Moscow Region. And this is the third major reason why you should take a closer look at Birches.
Children are taken to the international school from all over Rublyovka, but residents of Beryozka River Village can walk to the school: it is located in the fenced-in area of the village. Physical education for schoolchildren often takes place in a multifunctional sports complex, on a skating rink. The sports complex also has fencing and stretching sections and a gym.
We should also mention the open-air infrastructure of the village. These are bike paths, dog training grounds, an all-season children's amusement park. It is important that in winter no chemical reagents are used to loosen snow and ice. In the village, the snow is simply rolled up to a dense crust and sprinkled with special marble-granite chips, so in winter in “Birch” it is clean, like in a forest.
Now there is a New Year's campaign in Berezki: a number of houses are sold with a 16% discount. For the elite real estate segment, this is a very significant bonus from the developer. And in the near future, most likely, there will be no such gifts on the suburban market. There is a high probability that prices on the elite suburban real estate market will begin to grow from February.
As noted by Oleg Mikhailik from Knight Frank, the demand for suburban housing against the background of pandemic restrictions and closed borders remains high, and new elite Developers have not yet officially announced the settlements. Today, many developers have begun to look closely at the suburban market, but it takes time to launch a new high-quality project. Therefore, a decline in prices for suburban real estate in the near future, alas, is not expected.
