RBK Nedvizhimost: What Makes Modern Residential House in Moscow an Elite One
15 August 2013
RBK Nedvizhimost: What Makes Modern Residential House in Moscow an Elite One
What makes a house in Moscow an elite one, except for being located close to the Kremlin? Interior designs? Yes, but fine decoration haute couture can be made in a flat of any house. Distinguished neighbours? Yes, but very often the Bohemia lives in an old Brezhnev nine-storey-block of flats. Quality of construction? Yes, but a house can be constructed far from the centre of the capital. What then makes it possible to classify a house asbelonging to de luxe class? According to the opinion of RBK-Nedvizhimost it is…infrastructure.
The first elite residential houses in Moscow that appeared at the beginning of the 2000s had minimum infrastructure areas. Developers of the zero years just needed to “force” a dwelling box somewhere in the Golden Mile and “chop” it into flats and then sell them at triple prices. And it did not matter that the house had nothing except residents and windows of flats overlooking neighbouring buildings in bad despair…Today Ostozhenka, one of the most expensive districts of the capital in fact has turned into one of the usual residential districts of Moscow: residents of expensive club houses only stay overnight there and all their time they spend in riding between schools (where children need to be driven to), office centres, shops, gyms and SPA-salons; all these can be found anywhere in Moscow but only not in Ostozhenka. That is why today the infrastructure component of a premium class residential project has become one of the main ones for customers and it matters also for developers.
What does the notion of infrastructure of a modern de luxe residential complex include?
“The minimal set of infrastructure includes underground and guest parking lots, safeguarding, enclosed improved domestic area,’ says Zhanna Lebedeva, Head of Residential Real Estate Department of Welhome. But that is a standard minimum. According to the expert, among compulsory attributes of de luxe residential complex today are the following:
- concierge service,
- wellness-centre,
- SPA,
- swimming-pool,
- shopping and leisure centre,
- playgrounds and sports grounds,
- children’s educational establishments.
Please note that the above-mentioned applies not only to Moscow elite real estate but also to real estate of the relevant class all over the world. For example, all modern residential de luxe complexes in London offer quite rich infrastructure. “infrastructure set depends on the size of a complex. The larger residential complex is, the more different services are offered,” Yulia Ovchinnikova, Director for Foreign Real Estate of IntermarkSavills, says. “In small “boutique” houses there are twenty-four-hour concierge service, an underground parking lot with parking attendant’s services, a gym and there can be a small cinema hall and a swimming pool. In large elite multifamily houses this set is usually supplemented with a swimming pool, a business centre, a library, and a room that can be used to accept visitors. In the most luxurious houses, like One Hyde Park there is also a large hall that can be used for receptions and private dinners, golf-simulator. Apart from the gym there are several rooms for individual training, massage rooms.”
Let us also give a Moscow example. In the residential complex Knightsbridge Private Park, de luxe quarter development project in Khamovniki there will be a kindergarten, playgrounds, recreation areas, auxiliary facilities for storage of wines and fur coats, a fitness centre with a swimming pool of 25 metres, a club caf?. “Everything is created with assistance of foreign experts,” Timur Sukharev, Chief Commercial Officer of Restavracia N, says. “Famous British designers work on interiors of public zones and infrastructure items as well as the landscape of the private park. Our project is so far the only residential complex in Moscow where several different options of interior designs from western “stars” are offered to buyers of flats.
Let’s consider all infrastructure items of de luxe residential complex using the examples.
Children’s Infrastructure
“As traffic situation in Moscow is getting more and more complicated there is a need to have in close vicinity a maximum number of household and leisure services,” Oksana Diveyeva, Head of Urban Real Estate Sales Department of Blackwood says. “Infrastructure today is very important for customers, especially for families with children.”
In large Moscow de luxe residential complexes children’s infrastructure as a rule is represented by children’s clubs, shops, educational centres and centres for temporary stay, children’s sports sections, musical and creativity workshops for children and teenagers. In particular, in the residential quarter Knightsbridge Private Park there will be organised an unusual kindergarten. “The pre-school institution will be situated in a separate two-storey building in the area of the elite quarter,” says Timur Sukharev, Chief Commercial Officer of Restavracia N. “Such an institution will be equipped a gym and a music hall. The kindergarten will be managed by professional day-care assistants, teachers, psychologists as well as native speaking teachers. An individual approach will be ensured for each child.”
Sometimes a premium club house does not have a lot of extra space and children’s area is presented by one small play room equipped for children’s leisure time. That is done, for example, in elite houses in Granatny lane.
Green areas
There is almost nothing to say about green areas in modern elite residential complexes in Moscow: there are very few examples. Often new de luxe houses are examples of infill development: developers have no chance even to think about parks…
It is a different story in case of so called quarter development. “In the project Knightsbridge Private Park the developer has chosen an interesting solution of creating a private part with the area of two hectares within the complex and places the buildings along the perimeter of the site,” an expert from Blackwood tells.”The project is unique because instead of dense residential development and commercial areas the concept offers green planting on the private territory, nobody has done that before (there were projects with landscaped design but not with a park).”
Parking Lot
It should be mentioned that earlier there was a problem with the lack of parking places in elite residential complexes; now 2-3 car spaces are offered for a flat and in some residential complexes sale of car places is related to sale of a flat.
Cafes and Restaurants
The most popular infrastructure items in residential complexes today are public catering enterprises – cafes and restaurants. Verу often they work not only for residents of a house but also for strangers. But this is rather typical of lower classes of real estate - economy or business class. The situation in premium class residential complexes and club houses is quite different. Here people long for individuality and privacy protecting themselves from interference of strangers. The infrastructure of such complexes caters for internal consumers. In the area of Knightsbridge Private Park, which we’ve already taken as an example, the conceptual caf? will work as a closed club available only for residents of this residential complex.
Swimming-pool, Gym, SPA
Also the main “frequenters” of non-residential facilities on basement floors of urban houses are sports and recreation facilities. There are swimming pools, fitness centres and beauty parlours in each microdistrict and even quarter of the capital. In fact, the set of such infrastructure is the same for all classes of real estate. The difference is only in the level of services provided and their prices. If this is a sports club, it will differ by price and scale, if this is a beauty parlour, then in a premium house it will be called not a “beauty parlor” but a “SPA-salon” and a range of services will be wider, with Thai massage instead of regular massage. It is the philosophy of the elite segment. The two-storey wellness-centre in Knightsbridge Private Park will include a SPA-salon, a fitness centre as well as a 25-metre swimming-pool with marble finishing. Of course, everything will be most private and closed for general public.
Concierge Service
Concierge service costs not so much and is included into general maintenance of a premium class house. Sometimes such services are called room-service, like in hotels. Usually one person at the reception deals with it and his functions include coordination of requests of residents for different services.
In Russian practice wealthy residents of de luxe houses are not used so far to using concierge service at full extent. Affluent residents usually have personal assistants at offices whom they know well and to whom they entrust settlement of their questions, for example, hotel or ticket reservations. Concierge services are required not often: these are mostly minor requests like reservation of tables at restaurants, food delivery, booking theatre tickets, providing passes for guests.
Security
In de luxe residential complexes security arrangements do not belong to infrastructure as it is not and additional benefit of a complex but its compulsory and very important component,” says Oksana Diveyeva. “We know cases when high-ranking persons refused to buy a flat they liked because a house failed to pass checks of customer’s private security service.”
It should be mentioned that if in business class security systems include only a fence, a barrier and a guard at the entrance, in a premium house requirements to security are much higher. They include video surveillance along the perimeter, 24-hour paramilitary specially trained securities. Security people usually know all residents of the house and their guests by sight. Before the time a when high-ranking person decides to buy a flat, his security service check the house for compliance with the level of security. Restavracia N assures that due attention has been paid to security systems in Knightsbridge Private Park: “We do not comment on such issues,” Timur Sukharev told. “But we consider this point to be very important. Our security level complies with the highest national and international standards.
Source: RBK Nedvizhimozt