Problems That Foreigners Have Finding Housing in Moscow

Yelena Shurigina
Commercial Director
Podmoskovnaya Sloboda Holiday Hotel

When arriving in Moscow from abroad, foreign executives often receive a social package on top of their base salary, which often includes renting elite apartments.

The most important principle guiding a renter is flexibility. From it follow three important rules:

• the presence of plumbing in the flat, doors inside the flat, molding and standard kitchen equipment — in other words, these are elements without which a comfortable stay is impossible;
• a practicality to the finish that will serve for a long time and will facilitate maintenance of the premises;
• a reserved style.

But foreigners' most important request concerning living arrangements is safety. That is why they often are interested in houses that have guarded security and with private territory around the building.

Thus "apart-hotels" — hotels with suites designed as upscale apartments — have lately become very popular.

In the West, apart-hotels are usually referred to as furnished hotel suites with more area than typical and a quality similar to a regular flat. In other words, they combine home comfort and access to hotel services.

Potential clients of high-quality apart-hotels are often wealthy foreigners who frequent Russia for work and bring their families along, as well as families of native high-status businessmen, senior officials, senators and deputies.

Important advantages of apart-hotels are the generally long contract period, excellent service quality and presence of personal landscaped territory.

Apart-hotels cater to people planning to stay for a long period of time and are thus generally less expensive than regular hotel suites; at the same time, they should be only slightly more expensive than renting a regular flat. But they are more comfortable than regular apartments because they provide additional services and a guarded territory.

Lately it is very popular among foreigners to live within the city limits of Moscow. They are used to and have been familiar for a long time with that lifestyle. But in the majority of the developed countries of Europe and the United States, people only work in the center of the city and reside in houses in comfortable suburbs.

For example it is very popular for foreigners to live in the Novorizhkoye district, located near the Baltia highway, elite neighborhoods of townhouses, developed infrastructure including golf courses, stores open 24 hours a day, restaurants, sports and active lifestyle facilities, as well as, of course, apart-hotels.

A particular example of an outstanding apart-hotel is the Podmoskovnaya Sloboda complex, with its high degree of safety and array of additional services adapted specifically for foreign guests.

Although apart-hotels form a real estate segment considered to be in its early stages of development in Russia, nobody can deny that they have a huge upside in providing housing for guests and citizens of Moscow and the regions. Using the services of comfortable apart-hotels is particularly attractive for foreign citizens still trying to find housing that is near Moscow and reasonable and accessible in price.

It is noteworthy that apart-hotels are the best way to experience the unusual combination of a home atmosphere with the feeling of a new place that is practically growing out of your front steps. Also the presence of a sports complex, Wi-Fi network, restaurants and bars, security and other important services only add to the level of comfort for a long stay.