Women Talk: Generation Rent - Finally in Russia?

© Photo : Mikhail Kharlamov/Marie Claire RussiaSvetlana Kolchik
Svetlana Kolchik - Sputnik International
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To rent or to buy? A few months ago, my partner and I were stuck with this modern-day Hamletian dilemma.

To rent or to buy?

A few months ago, my partner and I were stuck with this modern-day Hamletian dilemma.

The predicament was quite banal: we decided to move from my tiny one-bedroom in the southwestern part of Moscow to a bigger place. Since early 2003, when I managed to buy that joint, real estate prices have surged almost tenfold. Nonetheless, we realized that even having sold it and emptied out our savings, we still wouldn't have enough money to buy anything worthy of such a tiresome investment. Unless, of course, we'd be willing to get "behind the mortgage bars," as my partner put it, for at least 20 years. Thus we reluctantly put off the idea of owning a decent place of our own for the foreseeable future, rented out my apartment, bit our tongues at Moscow rent prices and found a bigger place to live.

A growing number of my peers, especially those who don't come from the city, arrived at the rental option much more easily. According to recent market reports, Russia is near the bottom of the mortgage affordability rating (in 47th place out of 60), with interest rates starting at 12 percent and mortgage overcharges at 215 percent. The Moscow real estate market, in turn, ranks as the most unattainable in the country, with housing prices steadily on the rise regardless of economic turmoil. Local experts have calculated that in order to afford a small one-bedroom apartment for, say, $200,000 (a minimal price for a modest joint on the outskirts), a city resident with an average salary of 40,000 rubles (roughly $1250) would have to save up for at least 15 years.

Some, nevertheless, go ahead or take up a mortgage – for many Russians, even the “Millenials,” renting still seems like a rather novel and scary idea. Quite a few happen to already own some property, often sharing it with parents or other relatives (these mostly small and peripherally located apartments usually date back to the Soviet times, when they were distributed to certain groups of state workers and later privatized). And many do regard home ownership as the ultimate tenet of stability and the best kind of investment.

Still, the number of younger Russians who choose to rent is also growing quickly. My generation is gradually joining the “Generation Rent” (a term coined by Western sociologists a few years ago), which already prevails in the West and especially in Europe, where renters make up at least 60 percent of the population.

For 30-year old Ekaterina Chumerina, my colleague at Marie Clare/Russia, and her fiancé, a Western businessman who works in Moscow, buying a home here is not an option. At the moment, the couple rents a nice 80 square meter two-bedroom flat in a green area near the Moscow State University, their third rental in the last five years. They pay about $2,300 per month – quite a good deal for the city’s pricing standards. Ekaterina says she's content about this choice. "If we're talking about getting something acceptable in this city, it would be no less than a million dollars," she explains. "That's actually how much the place we rent now costs, too. It's a hell of a lot of money, but even if we did have it, it would be insane to pay it. We don't want to tie ourselves down with a mortgage, either — what if we decide to go live somewhere else?"

Danila Antonovsky, a freelance journalist who a few years ago launched the online service portal Thelocals.ru, a Moscow version of Craigslist (right now the site focuses on offering potential renters direct access to the nice affordable apartment database), agrees. He believes the major reason ever more Russian “Millenials” let go of the home ownership idea is that they want to "live well enjoying the ‘now.’"

"Why do you then need to invest in a ridiculously expensive Moscow property when you might be able to get something in London or elsewhere instead? Who knows where we are going to be in five year's time?" muses Antonovsky, who himself recently moved into a downtown rental apartament, letting go of the place his girlfriend owns near the suburbs.

Economists do lament the "destruction of the middle-class dream," with more younger people having to delay or to entirely write off the possibility of buying a home of their own. But I see some positive aspects in the trend as well, at least for Russia. Renting gives flexibility and fuels mobility. The latter is what I believe Russians still lack – the concept of going where the jobs are is rather uncommon for our mentality. And job-related mobility contributes to the economy no less than homeownership does. The world is indeed becoming a huge rental space, with more and more people reluctant to settle in one place, preferring to move every once in a while instead. But it would still be fairer if we did this based on a lifestyle choice and not on the need to survive.

The views expressed in this column are the author’s and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

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Russia has always been referred to as feminine and Russian women have been one of the most popular stereotypes of this nation, both positive and negative. But is this an all-male fantasy? Here is a hip, modern, professional and increasingly globalized Russian woman looking at the trends around her, both about her gender and the society at large. She talks and lets other women talk.

Svetlana Kolchik, 33, is deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire magazine. She holds degrees from the Moscow State University Journalism Department and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has worked for Argumenty i Fakty weekly in Moscow and USA Today in Washington, D.C., and contributed to RussiaProfile.org, Russian editions of Vogue, Forbes and other publications.

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