22-09-2009 / New Tenats Are Moving In

The year of 2009 was characterized by a change in portrait of expats renting elite apartment. A share of the foreign employees, who work in Russian and international companies make about 1/3 of the total number of clients renting apartments.

In their majority they were citizens of USA and UK before the pre-crisis period. Today the situation has changed. According to our analytical data the share of clients from USA and UK was more than 63 % before 2009, today this number had decreased by 17 %. However employees from Germany and France and few other countries had increased their presence on the Russian market by nearly 17%.

So what is the cause of such drastic change? Surely some “analysts” will say it’s all due to Global Warming or may be Penguin Migration, however the truth lies much deeper. MONEY!!! Some have it, some don’t. Prior to Global Financial Crisis, Russian market was dominated by American and British investments, but ever since the fall of 2008 the picture has changed. Brits and Yankees have pulled their investments and created a unique window of opportunity for European companies to present themselves in Russia . And they didn’t wait long, as well as they shouldn’t have. Russia is a great market for investments and it needs serious investors. So who are they new employees, new tenants, new clients? And where do they live?

  Some of the expats, who come from France , prefer to live in the area near Chistye Prudy and Kitay-Gorod. The reason is that they need to enroll their children in French school, which is conveniently located in the area. Proximity to school or kindergarten is very important for all expatriates who travel to Russia with their families. About 40% of all expats come to work to Russia with their family members.

This year many residential complexes, which located near schools have to offer great number of good apartments. For example complex Pokrovskoe-Glebovo, near the English-American school, is offering quite a few properties due to departure of many American and British employees who earlier lived there.   Some of them left Russia because their companies closed projects or simply pulled the funds out. Others decided that financial crisis will crush Russian economy and therefore they have to find another job. Before in some of the complexes near school there was a waiting list to get in. This year however it is absolutely free to get in and at a lower price. But for the most part, expats, including citizens of Germany , chose a residence near the office, which is often located in the Moscow ’s historical center. Interestingly, over the same period July – September of last year, there was a serious deficit in high quality offers.

Market has changed and clients have changed, what will new changes bring us is unknown, but what is known is that Russians will have another chance to show their great hospitality, and if in previous years mostly Americans and British enjoyed this tradition, now other European nationalities get to feel Russian warmth and welcoming.

 

 Source: Andrei Sado