RBK Nedvizhimost: Terraces in Moscow: Flats with Huge Balconies

18 September 2013

RBK Nedvizhimost: Terraces in Moscow: Flats with Huge Balconies

An urban flat is usually a space surrounded by walls from four sides. If you do not want to live in such a “box”, then pay attention to flats with large terraces where a significant area is under the open sky.

Spacious urban flats with terraces appeared in Moscow already in the Soviet period (for example, in houses where Kutuzovsky and Leninsky avenues are adjacent to the centre) and have always presented a particular type of real estate: absolutely premium and exclusive. “Ordinary” people just lived with small balconies or big recessed balconies at best.

With the beginning of the golden era of Moscow development in the 2000s all elite newly erected houses in the Central Administrative Area started to be designed with terraced flats. “Flats with terraces became available when deluxe houses appeared in Moscow,” Kristina Tomilina, Head of Urban Real Estate Department of IntermarkSavills, said. “However only now people stopped keeping away from them when choosing new housing, ceased being afraid of such “non-standard” real estate items and being anxious that a third of a flat is “outside”.  According to the realtor it is related to the fact that it becomes more and more difficult to surprise a buyer in the real estate market. Standard shell and core flats with ceilings of 3.2 metres are already not so attractive for a customer: having seen different variations and amazing projects abroad a buyer in Moscow wants to buy something similar. As an option it can be a flat with a terrace which

а) extends limits of the flat;
б) provides residents with almost suburban level of comfort.

Terraces are now being constructed in residential complexes not only of premium class but also of business class. For example, in the residential complex La Defense in 3rd Frunzenskaya street (according to realtors, this complex belongs to the business-plus class) all flats lower than the eighth floor are designed with spacious recessed balconies. And flats on the upper ninth floor have an access to a terraced roof.

It is clear that in club houses of premium and deluxe class terraces in penthouses have become a must. For example, in the most expensive (according to the Forbes rating) house in Moscow in 2010, the residential complex Usadba Trubetskikh there has been used the so called terraced or cascade design method: each building is one floor higher than the neighbouring one. Thus, flats of the upper floor have access to an operational roof of the neighbouring building. In this case terraces can be called real “gardens on the roof”, with their area reaching 100-200 square metres. 

In fact, a terrace is an open part of a flat whose area in some cases can be more than the residential area and the price for its square metre is lower than that of residential premises and is calculated with the ratio 0.3.

“As a rule, a terrace is used as a recreational area: in most cases our customers place tables and armchairs on the terraces in order to have an opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine in the open air on a summer evening,” Timur Sukharev, Commercial Director of the development company Restavracia N tells. “Some of them create winter gardens on the terrace. In our practice there have been cases when a customer wanted to build a fully-featured swimming-pool on the terrace and bring soil to create a lawn and plant trees. Of course, customer’s desire is a law and it is possible to implement such “whims” but they should be known already at the stage of design so that all technical and engineering details could be taken into account.

 

In the flagship project of Restavracia N the residential complex Knightsbridge Private Park the area of terraces reaches 250 square metres.

Flats with terraces are located on the sixth floor of each of the four club mansions of the elite quarter. It is an exclusive offer. “According to some criteria flats with terraces even exceed such exclusive classics in elite real estate, as penthouses,” Timur Sukharev tells. “In Knightsbridge Private Park flats with terraces are located immediately under penthouses on the top but one floor of a house and have a range of exclusive advantages: from amazing views of Moscow to pleasant benefits like an opportunity to install a fireplace.”

Buying a flat with a terrace is to a large extent a step dictated by emotions. “From this point of view they can be compared to penthouses,” Kristina Tomilina from IntermarkSavills develops the thought. “That is why it is not quite proper to speak about an average price for such real estate items. Flats with terraces are custom-made and unique products, some “method” of converting emotions into real money.” Timur Sukharev also mentions an emotional component of buying a flat with a large terrace. “The peculiarity of selling flats with terraces is that it is an emotional purchase,” Commercial Director of Restavracia N considers. “That is why flats with terraces are more often sold already at the final stage of project implementation when the house is fully constructed and a customer has an opportunity to walk personally on the terrace and see the green parks of Khamovniki, hear the bells of the Novodevichy Convent and take the decision about the purchase…”

Source: RBK Nedvizhimost

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