RBK Nedvizhimost: Tradition of Private Parks Comes Back to Moscow
03 September 2013
RBK Nedvizhimost: Tradition of Private Parks Comes Back to Moscow
For Muscovites and visitors the symbols of the capital are not architectural monuments, granite-paved squares and wide avenues but green parks. These are Moscow gardens and squares that the most exciting moments of life are connected with: fun picnics with friends, first dates, walks with children…
Today Moscow parks are an important element of urban environment; this is also understood by citizens and authorities of the capital who started to pay greater attention to green areas. And developers of urban real estate, especially of premium class, do understand it as well; in the park theme they have found common points with the desires of buyers.
From Palace Gardens...
Many Moscow gardens, squares and parks used to be private. Let us remind that the first park in Moscow was laid out thanks to Peter the First at the beginning of the 18th century: in the capital Botanical (Aptekarsky) garden was established. Approximately at the same time in Moscow and its vicinity wealthy estate of new type with first designed (palace) parks started to be constructed. Among such park estates there were households of Lefort and Golovin. Rich private premises with well-groomed green areas were considered to be the Slobodskoy Dom, Zayauzky Dvor, Bakhart’s Estate near the Yauza river as well as multiple estates near Moscow: Yaropolets belonging to the Chernyshevs, Nikolskoe-Gagarino, Petrovskoe-Alabino, etc.
In 1701 in Moscow and the Moscow region there were 43 palace gardens of such type. Initially they were exclusively private and were located within estates of wealthy people of that time but in the course of time they became the basis for public urban parks of the modern Moscow.
At present only a few residential complexes are located immediately in the city parks, Denis Popov, Managing Partner of Contact Real Estate, says. One of the examples is the residential complex Usadba Trubetskikh which is located in the park with the same name in Khamovniki.
The park and the estate trace their history back to the end of the 17th century when the household with the garden were delivered to possession of Prince Vasily Galitzine. Later the estate passed to Nikita Trubetskoy, the grandnephew of Galitzine who in 1758 built the main house of his Moscow estate. At the beginning of the 2000s on the territory of Usadba Trubetskikh park in Khamovniki there was constructed a residential complex of premium class. According to Forbes rating of 2010 the Usadba Trubetskikh was the most expensive real estate item if the Russian capital.
According to Elena Yurgeneva, Regional Director of Real Estate Department of Knight Frank Russia& CIS, the supply price of accommodations in the residential complex Usadba Trubetskikh at the primary market is 45 thousand dollars for a square meter. “Such figures are rarely reached even by best Ostozhenka offers,” she says. “One of the reasons for such price is direct access to Trubetskoys Park where residents of Usadba can walk also after 8 p.m. when the park is closed for public access.
Proximity to Park Increases Prices for Real Estate
Park areas, after all, are rare in urban landscape of Moscow: by far not everybody can afford to have a flat overlooking green trees of a shady public garden, quietness of lawns and a beautiful flower garden. Averagely, each Muscovite living in the centre of the capital has 5.7 square metres of parks. For comparison, availability of green park areas to the citizens of the largest metropolitans of the world is as follows: New York – 8.6 square metres, London – 7.5 square metres, Paris - 6 square metres. Only 1.8% of population of the Central Administrative Area of Moscow (about 13 thousand people) live in a close vicinity of park areas and only 1 from 30 residential houses in the centre are located near a park.
It is quite a complicated task sometimes to buy in the Russian capital a premium class flat located in a close vicinity to a park. For example, in the Central Administrative Area not more than 5% of the currently flats in ready houses are close to green areas.
Close proximity of a park area increases the price of a square metre in premium class averagely by 15%, park view increases it by 10% more, according to a survey of IntermarkSavills. Such interrelation is confirmed by other real estate market experts in Moscow. “The surrounding area or a park in the neighbourhood is the first thing a buyer sees,” Yekaterina Rumyantseva, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Kalinka Real Estate Consulting Group, says. “And if he sees a beautiful and well-maintained courtyard and a green park nearby where it is pleasant to have a walk, to have a rest and to play with children, then he will look at a house and at a flat through the lens of the first favourable impression,” the expert assures. According to her words, buyers agree to pay 5% more for a flat if a residential complex has a large green area.
Green Yard in a Modern Residential Complex
“Landscape design near small club houses in the centre of the city is represented at the best case by a lawn and a neatly trimmed bush,” Elena Yurgeneva from Knight Frank tells about modern elite real estates in the centre of Moscow with disappointment. “Here we usually talk about infill development. That is why, each land plot is very expensive.”
It is obvious that such premium class real estate does not suit everyone. Even the most expensive house in Ostozhenka becomes unattractive for premium class real estate buyers with families, the largest category in today’s market. “The majority of transactions in the elite real estate market over the last two years have been concluded with married men aged 35-45, making purchases for themselves to improve their housing conditions,” Denis Popov from Contact Real Estate said, confirming our thesis. ‘That is why a vast interior area of a courtyard and proximity to walking areas and parks are becoming the priority components of elite real estate. Apart from that, we observe return migration from the suburbs - because of traffic and complicated road situation people with families for whom mobility is important for business, come back with children to the city but at the same time they do not want to refuse from the lifestyle and closeness to nature they are used to. Such buyers seek elite complex development projects in the centre with maximum infrastructure and walking areas in the interior area or in the neighbourhood where one could let children walk without caring much about it.”
However, not all residential complexes of premium class in Moscow are equally green. According to Denis Popov, the green yard trend in newly erected buildings in the centre of the capital is a fundamentally new and developing phenomenon. Such project will be more competitive all other things being equal. The tendency is confirmed by Yekaterina Rumyantseva who singles out from all elite newly erected buildings a small share of residential complexes with spacious landscaped yards with private parks and gardens.
The residential complex Knightsbridge Private Park in Khamovniki can be taken as an example. The area of the land plot being developed is 2.9 ha, and the area of the park in this residential complex in the centre of Moscow is… about 2 ha, a record-breaking figure for green areas in Moscow.
According to Timur Sukharev, Commercial Director of Restavracia N (the developer of theKnightsbridge Private Park) “lots of effort were applied that can be compared to the amount of funds spent directly on construction.”
“The large park surrounding houses created in the style of traditional English parks is the basis of our project,” Timur Sukharev explains. “Certainly, it would be possible to gain more profit from the project by means of densification and maximum reduction of flat floor space: the more flats are sold, the more profit is. But will it be considered de-luxe in such case? Will it be comfortable to live in such a house? The same questions will be inevitably asked by customers. Some things that economy class developer can do are unacceptable in elite real estate development. We implement our project from the position of perfectionism: we construct the Knightsbridge Private Park in such a manner that residents can live here as we ourselves would like to live in a perfect world. And eventually it will repay.”
Though the residential complex is under construction yet, it is known that British designers will work on landscape designs of Knightsbridge Private Park. The developer does not discover details so far but informs that these are going to be globally renowned experts, “for the first time if Moscow”.
The spread of the park area of the residential complex is really impressive. “In fact, we fully cover up with soil one underground floor so that large-sized trees could grow and develop well,” Timur Sukharev specifies. As any of our parks, the whole yard of the Knightsbridge Private Park will be only for pedestrian, there won’t be any cars. “Thus we actually create a natural complex in the framework of a particular development project,” Commercial Director of Restavracia N says. “Such oasis in the centre of Moscow is a very rare thing for the capital, and buyers highly appreciate it. In the long run these are the aspects our reputation is made of, which we, as a developer with 20-year-experience of work in the elite real estate market appreciate.”
Source: RBK Nedvizhimost