A kennel for a new life: why mini-apartments are getting smaller than a prison cell

The Ministry of Construction says it is only responsible for social housing.

Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil

The statement that housing in Russia is becoming more expensive has already become a commonplace. And yet, if you look at the numbers, it is difficult to call such a development of events trivial. The dynamics of growth are especially striking. According to the analytical center irn.ru, from November 2018 to November 2019 a square meter in Moscow has risen in price by 6 thousand rubles - from 172 thousand to 178 thousand rubles. From November 2019 to November 2020 - by 22 thousand rubles. The biggest leap has come this year. A year ago a square meter cost 200 thousand rubles, now its price is 241 thousand.

Despite the high cost, large cities, and especially Moscow and St. Petersburg, remain centers of attraction for young and active citizens. This is what construction companies use. An offer to buy apartments in Moscow with a total area of 20 square meters, 19 square meters, 14 square meters, even 13 square meters on the Moscow real estate market is a dime a dozen.

Politicians urge the Ministry of Construction to change its mind and influence construction companies, which, out of their greed, are building apartments, the area of which is smaller than a prison cell in Norway.

Living in a tiny apartment is humiliating, unhealthy, and bad for the country. These arguments against humanity are well known. Despite this, towers are erected every year in large cities, in which citizens move into cells for their money. Why do some need to build such houses, while others voluntarily settle in them?

Why can they

In Russia, no one, neither legislatively nor normatively, limits the minimum area of an apartment. There are rules that are advisory in nature. Professor of the International Academy of Architecture Maxim Perov says:

- This is not a tough SANPIN that prohibits something, but a recommendation - preferably 12 sq. meters of living space. These are ancient guidelines. And then we start talking about what is good and what is bad. The reason is understandable - limited purchasing power. They sell with us, proceeding exclusively from square meters, the location is added a little more.

The Ministry of Construction is not responsible for the market. It is in charge of only social apartments of the state housing stock. To the question of the editors of Novye Izvestia about the norms, officials gave the following answer:

"In accordance with clause 5.7 of SP 54.13330.2016" SNiP 31-01-2003 Residential and multi-apartment buildings "in multi-apartment buildings of the state housing stock, minimum areas for social use apartments are established (excluding the areas of balconies, loggias, terraces, cold storage rooms and side vestibules ): a shared living room in a one-room apartment - 14 m2, a shared living room in apartments with two or more rooms - 16 m2, bedrooms - 8 m2 (for two people - 10 m2); kitchens - 8 m2; kitchen area in the kitchen-dining room - 6 m2. In one-room apartments, it is allowed to design kitchens or kitchen-niches with an area of at least 5 m2".

That is, if the unknown lucky ones manage to get social housing, the state guarantees that their apartment will be at least 24 sq. M. In a one-room apartment, the room will be at least 14 square meters, and the kitchen - 8 or, at worst, 5 square meters, but not less. The circle turns out to be an apartment of 25-30 square meters.

The Ministry of Construction recommends using these norms "in multi-apartment buildings of private housing stock and housing stock for commercial use, in accordance with the Housing Code of the Russian Federation and MDK 2-03.2003" Rules and Norms for the Technical Operation of the Housing Stock ". How construction companies and developers relate to these recommendations, they show every day in practice - they spit on both the Ministry of Construction and the citizens.

Another thing is surprising. The location has ceased to play a significant role in determining the price of housing. A new building in Kapotnya costs 400 thousand per square meter, and secondary housing on Patriarch's Ponds in the very center - 600 thousand. Sergey Polonsky, owner in 2004-2011 of one of the largest and most successful development companies in the country, Mirax Group, who has built more than one square meter in Moscow and the country, confirmed that it is more expensive to build small-sized housing. The cost of structures in ordinary apartments is 50% of the cost. In housing of the lowest class, the cost of inert materials can reach 60-70%. There are more walls, and the load on the elevators is increasing proportionally. But why in the very center of Moscow prices are comparable to the distant outskirts in ecologically dirty areas, even he does not know.

Sergey Polonsky blames the fact that the new areas look like honeycombs, not only and not so much the builders themselves:

- Now the main developers are Sberbank and VTB. They have a sense of architecture. Terrible. Unfortunately, there is no competition among developers. Developers have turned into builders, from builders into builders, because banks tell them when to sell, what to sell, how much to sell and how much to sell. In fact, we have no developers, and since there are no developers, there is no architecture. A developer and an architect have been the same thing at all times, not so long ago it was divided.

Banks give mortgages to citizens and dictate to builders what apartments to build, developers build pencil cases of 20 square meters, on which everything is located - a kitchen, a toilet, beds and tables, if there are three or four people living there, and the city authorities look at this with wide closed eyes. After all, the same builders are building housing, for example, for renovation. As our anonymous sources in the mayor's office say, when they began to relocate Muscovites from five-story buildings, they talked about a replacement rate of 2 - the number of residents in new buildings almost doubles. Even then, everyone understood that this plan did not work economically. But now everything has become even worse - for the residents, of course. In reality, they are building with a replacement rate of 4. Due to this, the population density increases by 4 times.

Sergey Polonsky believes that the norms for population density need to be changed:

- In general, it is necessary to change all norms, based on the situation of the coronavirus pandemic. Consideration should be given to ensuring that all houses have balconies. Houses without balconies are a horror in case of blockage. Transport and pedestrian accessibility within the quarters to the entire infrastructure is important. The concept should be such that you have everything inside the quarter; if the quarter is blocked for an epidemic, it works. This is the path taken by the Chinese, and the Italians are now also following.

Meanwhile, Moscow builders have another fun in the running - apartments. They are also for sale, however, there is no preferential mortgage on them, but as usual - you are welcome. Yulia Lurie, director of the Mayak real estate agency, says:

- For example, such a well-known complex on Vernadsky Avenue - the Vernadsky residential complex. This is a former institute, which now has 900 objects, former offices, converted into rooms - apartments. There I saw an apartment with a total area of 7 sq. meters. But these are non-residential premises. They make kitchens, toilets and rent them out as a hostel.

So, the developers do not lack resourcefulness, and there is no limit to their greed either.

Why do we need it

17-meter apartments are incredibly popular on the market, says Julia Lurie:

- Such apartments are in great demand. Moscow is the largest employer in the country. People come, they need to live somewhere. At 17 meters you can put a bed, organize a small bathroom and a tiny kitchen. This is quite enough. Such apartments are bought very well, they simply fly away, because they cost 6 million rubles.

There are many more people who have 6 million than those who have enough money for more comfortable housing. In addition, such small apartments can only be found in new buildings; there are simply no such apartments on the Patriarch's Ponds. But the main reason for the frenzied popularity is its limited purchasing power. A person cannot buy an apartment with a large area, but wants to live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, and then the minimum area is the only opportunity to move to the capital, explains Maxim Perov:

- We, snickering Muscovites, say: oh, this is horror! If, for example, we talk about St. Petersburg, then in the "people of men", such as Urino, Devyatkino, who are remembered as a negative example, people from Murmansk buy apartments, and they are happy. They are sure that we do not understand, and they consider it to be happiness, you guys are snuffed up, but we are all great. It is a question of the relativity of values.

Many Russian citizens believe that buying an apartment is better than renting. Economists have long been convincing citizens of this. If you take the cost of an apartment and put the money in the bank for a deposit, you can pay for rent, and there will be more left. In Europe, homeowners are no more than 30-40%, experts say. But it's like a saying: what is good for a German, death for a Russian. Our citizens trust neither banks nor the state. Today there is a registration in someone else's housing - and tomorrow it will not. Today banks pay off deposits, but if Ukraine or something else happens, there is no money. Therefore, Russians are investing in concrete and buying a "roof over their heads."

Apartments for introverts

Professor of Moscow University, academician of the Russian Academy of Education, psychologist Alexander Asmolov understands the motivation of citizens who buy housing in "cheloveinniki". These apartments become a fulcrum for those who have come from other places and are looking for a fulcrum in Moscow. They allow you to gain a foothold in Moscow, to take the first step, which is why they are so in demand:

- I know many examples when people from other cities anchor in Moscow buying such an apartment. This is an opportunity to find yourself in the conditions of a metropolis, which for many seems to be a place of future prospects. These apartments are like anchoring places for future prospects. You can wait it out, sit it out, if you consider this space as a place through which you will jump into other worlds.

But the same psychologists warn: the psyche is gradually destroyed in micro-apartments. Alexander Asmolov does not exclude the depersonalization of people living in "human beings":

- If I were a master of advertising agency, I would make the slogan: “Apartments for introverts! Fast and inexpensive. " Then we would get those people for whom not an extraverted, but an introverted way of life would become such an alluring space. I would be very careful with the arguments here, since the phenomenon of encapsulation, hermitism is growing more and more, with all social networks, in our society.

It all depends on the motivation. If a person enters 17 meters and is sure that this is the first step, this is one story. Those who were forced to move and are suffering - for that "paradise in a hut" may turn out to be a prison.

In the world and with us

In large Russian cities, construction is being carried out on a very large scale, and the relationship between the authorities and developers is more than partnership. In Europe, the situation is exactly the opposite. Maxim Perov says:

- In Europe, practically everywhere there is very strict zoning, zoning. It is impossible to break it there for any money. Five floors are written, which means there will be five floors. When they finished building Berlin after the reunification, I talked with the chief architect. In his zoning, it was painted - the height of the house, the number of floors, the number of windows, the angle of the roof slope, the color of the evaporator, the entrance group, the frame design of the windows. Everything is scheduled, and this has the force of a very strict law.

Moscow, according to the expert, has not yet taken shape as a city. The Russian capital was formed under the model of “catching-up industrialization of the second industrial revolution,” says Maxim Perov. The industrial zones around which the settlement was located are no longer needed. But the city needs people, because there is a shortage of workers. Having received New Moscow, the mayor's office received a landfill for new construction. Cities are derivatives of the economic model, says the expert:

- We have a mono-raw material economy in our country, so the cities will be of a consumer nature. There are industrial cities, there are trade cities, there are consumer cities, where most of the income of the townspeople comes from consumption. Moscow is such a gigantic center of consumption with the appropriate service personnel. It develops, requires new people.

Nevertheless, the city is like a moloch - we have already passed this. If the city needs new people, then it must create conditions for their dignified life, and not push them into cages, as they once pushed their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers into communal apartments, and their grandfathers and grandmothers - into Khrushchev apartments, and their parents - into nine-story buildings. ... The irony of fate is that the Khrushchevs, in comparison with the "people", seem to be palaces. In the 21st century, this is simply humiliating.