Micro-apartments that are only 10 square meters in size (107 square feet) are getting trendy in large cities as they are cheap. Manhattan in New York is known for such lofts, and Moscow may become another city where people can only afford a micro unit.

Life on 10 square meters

In Russia, micro-apartments (aka “studio”) include a living room, a kitchenette and a bathroom. High prices for real estate coupled with plummeting incomes drive the demand, Lenta.ru reported.

Large cities offer more jobs, but property prices are also higher. Whether you are renting or looking to buy a home, one can only get what is affordable, and the smaller, the cheaper.

Russians are used to putting up with uncomfortable living conditions, Maria Volkova explains. Such units are also an attractive investment and with the plummeting ruble Russians are looking at options to maintain the value of their savings.

How much for a 10-meter studio? 2.8 million rubles, which is 36 thousand US Dollars. An apartment like this is listed for sale in Novogirevo district of Moscow. It was built in 1983.

10 square meters is an extremely small loft, but mini-apartments are definitely in demand. By August 2020, 2.1 thousand of units that could be described as “micro-apartments” had been sold in Moscow, as compared to 960 such properties that changed hands last year.

Developers are offering larger shares of small apartments in new buildings, staring at the barrel of affordability crisis.

Extremely small flats are gaining in popularity in large metropolises due to affordability crisis.

Buyers of mini-apartments

The dwindling ruble and economic instability also push residents from regions to seek jobs in capitals, which is another reason why cheap real estate gets snapped quickly.

At the start of 2019, the average size of an apartment listed for sale in Moscow was 66.6 square meters. By January 2020 it dropped to 63.9 square meters and by August reached 62m².

Analysts point out that the demand on small residential dwellings exceeds the supply by 3 times. Within the commercial sector, there are already 4 times more buyers than sellers.

Millennials are the group that drives the demand for micro-units. A standard 1-room apartment is usually 35-38 square meters. You may feel it’s already pretty tight, but Russian millennials are looking for residential units of 15-20 square meters in size.

The reason why young buyers don’t wish to purchase larger apartments is because they aren’t planning to own them for a long time. They are after the location and the technological equipment of the building. Smaller spaces are also easier to look after and millennials value their time.

1-room units of 35-38 square meters in size (pictured) traditionally have been the most popular type of accommodation among renters and local buyers. But these typical units are unaffordable to younger buyers, thus the popularity of smaller dwellings is on the rise.

Prices in smaller towns

In St. Petersburg a 10-meter studio is listed at 2.3 million rubles (USD 30 thousand), which is just slightly cheaper than in Moscow.

But in regional towns it’s possible to purchase a micro-unit that costs only 350 thousand rubles (USD 4,500 thousand).

The smallest unit listed for sale in Russia is only 6.6 square meters in size. It’s located in the Moscow region, in the town of Krasnogorsk. The price tag on it is 1.15 million rubles (USD 15 thousand). It’s been built in 2017 and there is a shower, stove, and a toilet in the unit. It even has a fridge.

Micro-units are more expensive if we look at the cost per square meter. Standard 2-3-room apartments in newly erected Moscow buildings are priced at 122,000 rubles per m² (USD 1,581), while micro-units cost 174,000/m² (USD 2,255).

However, lack of personal space is linked to numerous disorders such as attention deficit and inability to focus.

Most Russians still tend to own their homes as opposed to renting, due to high prices of rentals that make them unaffordable. Most Russian women you meet on Elenasmodels.com probably own their homes mortgage-free.

Apartments remain the most popular housing option within Russia, due to years of putting people in apartment buildings during the times of the USSR. Nowadays private houses are trendy but the cost of construction is high, which makes it unaffordable for the majority of Russians.

Read also:

• Home ownership in Russia: 85% of Russians own their homes
• What does it mean, ‘living normally’ in Russia?
• Prices for real estate in Kiev, Ukraine
• Big purchases: What had Russians been buying in 2019 and 2020?