Thread: work for americans in Russia - prestigious-->humble

I would never consider those flats you give as an example. You forget or don't know that there are a lot of new apartaments built, in Mitino for example and Strogino (And also in the south of Moscow though I still haven't change my oppinion about that part), some even have grannies guarding the entrance hall and protecting walls from graffity and piss, there is one where my uncle rents a flat.

I still stand that average renting price in Moscow for a decent 3-rooms flat would be no less than $1700 a month. A friend of mine inherited 2-rooms flat in Kuzminki from his grandmother (it's an ordinary flat in a panel house buit in early 80s) and he leases it for 50 000 roubles (about $ 1600) a month. He says there isn't a problem at all to find a customer for such a price.

Originally Posted by Basil77

I still stand that average renting price in Moscow for a decent 3-rooms flat would be no less than $1700 a month. A friend of mine inherited 2-rooms flat in Kuzminki from his grandmother (it's an ordinary flat in a panel house buit in early 80s) and he leases it for 50 000 roubles (about $ 1600) a month. He says there isn't a problem at all to find a customer for such a price.

This would be an absolutely acceptable rent for me, on my current London salary. No problem, I could be more.
However, I doubt I'd get the salary I'm getting now, if I was a Russian person doing this job in Moscow! So it's not really comparable. Probably, I'd get about half and then I that rent would be a stretch.

What is included? Heating, Water, electricity, gas? Any taxes for just living?

I took a 1 bedroom flat after returning to London. I really don't like this building, and the plumbing is terrible. There is a mobile phone mast on the roof, very bad for health.
But I'm saving money and at least I am in one of the best areas of town. It sounds like Moscow is worse than London, but probably not by much.

I often compare with Sweden, and Sweden has the same Wild West situation with rental flats that Moscow seems to have. People get/got rental contracts from the state. They can basically never lose the contract unless they forfeit paying the rent and they are obviously not living there for several years. If the person who has the contract dies, a relative who is registered as living with the person who died can take over the contract.
So everybody is after such a state contract; they are traded, bought illegally and any number of shady arrangements. Meanwhile private lets are very regulated and overpriced, and everything is getting privatised, so the best thing to do is to buy a place.

Although the actual flats in Sweden are better quality than London, the supply/demand is totally messed up.
The housing styles in Sweden are much more similar to Russia than the UK, but the equivalent of "Khrustevska" are a bit better quality, I think. Not much though. They had a plan to build 1 million flats in 5 years, and the result is quantity over quality. Only immigrants and very poor people live there now.

I stayed in a flat of the post war Stalin era when I was in Minsk. 2 rooms, good sized and high ceilings, facing the street. It wasn't a grand building, but it was very nice indeed. If I could live like that in London I'd absolutely love it. I probably could afford a mortgage for a similar type of flat in Stockholm, but never in London. Very good location too, next to the Peace monument.

Definitely no noise from the neighbours and it had been fully renovated to an excellent standard. I think it had original parquet floor. No fireplaces. I was really surprised how good the quality was. The plumbing was good too.

You entered the house from a nice yard behind the building, with a little park, playground etc. But for such a nice building it had an very ugly front door (painted steel) and the stairs were spartan and quite ugly. Not vandalised, just ugly. I have no idea how the owner got hold of the flat, and I am pretty sure he charged me at least double the real rent for staying there. The other inhabitants were locals, but at least half the cars parked outside had German or Russian license plates. No idea what the deal was with that.

I have a positive view of Russia as a place to live - if you have money! And also Belarus and to a lesser degree Ukraine (saw a lot of poverty there). However, these are terrible places to be poor! What if something happened....
I think it would be really scary to live somewhere that has literally NO social security and people are totally dependent on friends and family if something happens. I don't know what the exact healthcare situation is.

Moscow property prices will probably continue to go up, up, up - since there simply isn't enough supply to match the demand.