Having a private house in the city is not an unachievable dream anymore. It’s now possible to find the best summer locations for doing shashliki, lying in the sun or even swimming. While there are many green areas in Moscow, it’s hard to avoid noise and pollution even in the remote park areas.
«It’s hard to live ‘closer-to-theearth’ in Moscow as city pollution is extremely high, another negative aspect is lack of security while living separately – block of flats is safer», said Natalia Kats, Managing Director at Usadba real estate agency.
The agents claim that there are only about two hundred blocks of apartments close to water and only one hundred in the close vicinities of parks.
City beach
Moscow is full of water reservoirs – there are some 440 of them – but only nine are suitable for swimming. On average the safest swimming places in Moscow are located in the northern part of the outer city. This year Rospotrebnadzor, a Russian watchdog for consumers rights, allowed swimming in the Khimki water reservoir (Beach Club, Levoberezhniy), Mescherskiy Pond, Strogino flood plain, Troparevo, Bolshoy Gorodskoy pond near Park Pobedy, Chernoye Lake and Shkolnoye Lake.
The best places to spend a day at the beach are on the Khimki water reservoir and Serebryaniy Bor. Beach Club has imported sand, lounges and parasols but it’s pricey – the entrance fee is 1000 rubles. Levoberezhniy Beach has a free entrance and no beach facilities, besides volleyball and sporting ground, table tennis and a kids playground on the beach.
«Flats and houses near parks and beaches are more favorable in terms of ecology, and there are very few proposals of such housing on the secondary market, which means these flats will be in more demand with time», said Alexander Ziminsky, director of the elite real estate department at Penny Lane.
Living next to the parks may have another bonus – residents won’t have to go far to have a picnic amid the green scenery. «One can have picnic without setting up a fire almost anywhere, but doing shashliki is forbidden in the parks, it can be done only using charcoals and a barbeque, set up no lower than 30 cm above the grass», said Anna Levitova, managing partner at Evans.
Vorobyevi Gori, Izmailovo, Kurkino, Serebryaniy Bor, Troparevo, Kosinskiy and Moskvoretskiy parks have barbeque equipment available for rent.
Park next door
The controversial Khimki forest located along the Moscow Canal is called by the real estate agents one the best places to live in, say, but housing in the park zones is harder and harder to obtain.. Developers and ecologists are fiercely struggling for the 1000 hectar area and it still isn’t clear who will win.
It’s hard to find ecological dwelling in the city centre but there are several options that can meet strict requirements.
Troparevskiy Park and the Veteran and Pomestie parks near Serebryaniy Bor have facilities for active outdoor games and sports, as well as walking areas for spending time with kids. Housing at Serebryaniy Bor is one of the most expensive in the city, since Soviet times high-ranking officials and the cultural elite obtained land there. The 11-hectare territory is split to 30 plots and the cost on it varies from $4.5 million to 15 million, so it is still full of wealthy neighbors.
The town village of Troitse-Lykovo is also located in the northwestern Moscow near Strogino, cottage homes in Potapovo and Kurkino also welcome fans of nature and private housing. Sokol village, Pokrovskoye-Glebovo and Yuzhnoye Butovo have vast park areas close to them and are also worth looking at for those who want villagestyle surroundings. But real estate experts warn to be ware of dodgy deals while selling property in parks and ancient estates – since the land may be embroiled in protests and its purchase could be illegal, as was the case with Rechnik.
The Monolit, Vorobyovo and Premier apartment blocks are located on Kosigina Street and are in close proximity to University Park and Pioneers’ Palace (Dvorets Pionerov). The historical landmark manor of Trubetskie, which was owned by wellknown noble families in tsarist times, today offers exclusive housing, flats and townhouses. The average price of a square meter there is $40,000.
A four-story building called House of Gorbachev located on Kosigina 10 is surrounded by a park and offers unique flats once every ten years. Flats in the house which hosted the last USSR leader cost no less then $40,000 per square meter.
«One of my favorites is a small mansion at First Golutvinsky Pereulok 11 which overlooks Park of Arts and the Moskva River at the same time», said Natalya Kats. «This kind of housing is for those who are willing to live in the city centre and still breathe clean air», said Natalya Kats.
Summer dacha
Some of the neighborhoods are more relaxing than others, but to have real summer time one should go outside the city. More and more people are willing to rent a dacha outside Moscow and June is the high time to do it.
«The variety of dacha rental options is melting but since the taste differs it’s still possible to find what is suitable for each tenant», said Maria Zhukova, First Deputy Director at Miel Arenda. «Some people are asking for a dacha near a lake or a forest, others want it to be in the same area as their apartment and easily accessed by transport», she added.
Families with children ask about renting a dacha more often than others and many of them require the lowest price possible, claim the agents. «Renting out dacha close to Rublevo- Uspenskoye, Novorizhskoye, Kievskoye, Minskoye, Dmitrovskoye and Ostashkovskoye Shosse will be more expensive, and water reservoirs in the vicinities will add more to the price», said Anna Levitova, managing partner at Evans.
Source: The Moscow News
