Issue #04/59, February 25 - March 10, 1999  

by John Dolan

I just went looking for an apartment in Moscow, and returned with good news: ignore the scared, fussy noise currently being peddled by The Moscow Times about prices "stabilizing" and rents being only "20-30 percent below pre-crisis levels." Rents in fact have fallen so steeply that the eXile has reluctantly decided to take time out from its usual community-baiting in order to do its (remaining) readers a valuable service. We're gonna help you save big bucks.

The fact is that you can find a decent two-room apartment in the center for $500 or less, contrary to the Times's claim (Feb. 2) that "in moderately-priced regions...two-room places go for $690 to $1,475." The Hell they do! They go for about a third of what The Times claims. Whose side are those guys on?

I came to Moscow hoping that I might at last be able to afford a place to live. But then I read The Moscow Times, which claimed in a Feb. 20 story headlined, "Signs of End of Departure Spree" that rents had stopped falling, and that only "ten to fifteen per cent of the international business community" had left Moscow. (Since then I haven't heard anyone name a figure below 50%.)

The MT seemed much more worried about disseminating propaganda for its real-estate advertisers than providing any hope or advice for the expat renter.

Of course, there was the Russian-language market...but here I hesitated. Ever since my first trip to Russia in 1993, I recall reading Moscow Times stories about naive Westerners getting ripped off by cunning, corrupt Russians. These stories lead nervous foreigners to stick to the Western real-estate agents, who--surprise!--specialize in what the Times calls "the high-end real-estate market."

I let one of these Western agents show me several apartments in the $1,000 range. What miserable holes they were--as homey as an airport-Hilton suite.

Iz Ruk V Ruki was as good as my friend had promised. If you're looking for an apartment in Moscow, get it and read it, even if you have to spell out the letters. You don't need to be fluent to get the important facts: price, size and location. Remember that even apartments listed for $600-$700 can easily be talked down to $500 or less. Often the ad will desperately hint as much, listing "TORG." next to the price, meaning "negotiable." Once you can read the listings, you have your pick of a huge number of apartments at reasonable prices. Many of them are not "Yevroremont"--but Christ, why come to Moscow to live like you're in Denver or Frankfurt? I love the modestly-priced "Russian-renovated" apartments I encountered through Iz Ruk V Ruki. Those diagonal pine parquet floors, window thermometers and long, dark bookcases are emblems of this magnificent place, last outpost of the dire and beautiful Twentieth Century.

Most listings in Iz Ruk V Ruki provide real-estate agents' phone numbers. I found these agents hardworking, fast--and patient with my lousy Russian. Some of them even helped me bargain, pointing out flaws I hadn't noticed.

I ended up taking a quiet one-bedroom apartment in a beautiful part of Moscow. The landlady eagerly accepted my offer of $500 after asking $600--and if a terror-stricken nerd like me can bargain successfully, anybody can.

I asked the agent who found me this place, Adzhon of the Progress Agency, how next year's market looks. He said that one-bedroom apartments in the $400-700 range are going begging all over Moscow. He expects the average apartment rental price to fall by another 20% or 30% by summer. Sale prices may fall even more steeply, he predicted. So if you want to own a piece of Moscow, bargain for a low-end rental and save your money.

In the end it was the supposedly sinister Russian real-estate agent who turned out to be my best ally in finding a Moscow apartment--and The Moscow Times which did its best to steer me into a sucker deal.

It's a sad day in Mudville when this newspaper, a proud bastion of scurrility, is called on to protect the English-speaking community from The Moscow Times/Western real estate agency price-gauging cabal. Thanks to them evil, corrupt Russkies I contacted through Iz Ruk V Ruki, I've just saved myself a few hundred dollars a month. So don't get burned: if you have to read The Times, skip the classifieds and stick to the editorials. They're harmless, I assure you.