$2,599,999

This two-bedroom apartment in a 35-story high-rise in Moscow has been renovated to include an architectural designer’s studio, with high-end furnishings and finishes covered in the asking price. 

The entrance on the seventh floor has a stained-glass ceiling and panels designed by the owner, an architect who uses the apartment as her studio. Some of the foyer walls are covered with black-and-silver floral patterned wallpaper, others are overlaid with an Italian decorative coating made from silver leaf. The space also has chandeliers and wall sconces made with Swarovski crystals. Its polished wine-colored tile floor leads to the kitchen and the living room just beyond. 

In the kitchen, the ceiling is covered in mirrored mosaic tiles, and a countertop of black granite extends to form a small table for dining. Appliances are by the German company Miele International. The purple tempered-glass kitchen cabinets were manufactured in Italy, as were the ceramic wall tiles. Doors leading to the living room are made of tempered glass carved in a Moscow glasshouse. 

The living room has a black granite wet bar and an Italian-made sofa upholstered in black leather and purple crushed velvet. A large fish tank is recessed into the wall and can be seen from both the living room and the adjacent study. The living room has views of the Ochakovka River.

Off the living room is the master bedroom, which looks out onto Troparevsky Forest Park. Its dark floor is made of wenge, a tropical wood. The walls are covered in decorative silver leaf; the adjoining dressing room is lined with striped zebra wood veneer. A second bedroom and sitting room are off of a hallway near the foyer, as are two bathrooms lined with Italian tiles. Bath fixtures were made by the German companies Villeroy Boch and Miele, except for the American flower-shaped tub in one bath. 

This apartment is in a high-rise complex called Mirax Park, in the Yugo-Zapad neighborhood of southwestern Moscow, which attracts young families and professionals who commute to work into central Moscow, said Elena Yurgeneva, the listing agent, who is a regional director with Knight Frank Russia CIS. The complex has its own restaurant and cafe, fitness center, swimming pool, grocery store, and beauty salon. Buying the unit will also enable the purchase of a space in the parking garage, which can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000, depending on location, the agent said. Travel time to central Moscow varies widely, depending on traffic, from 10 minutes to 90. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is about 40 minutes away by car, Ms. Yurgeneva said. 

MARKET OVERVIEW

The Russian real estate market was privatized with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when residents were given the homes that they had been living in. Prices increased steeply, then dipped sharply from 1998 to 2001 because of an economic crisis in Russia. In the seven-year-long boom following that decline, prices increased sixfold, according to Real Estate Market Indicators IRN.RU, a research and consulting firm.

In 2008, with the global economic crisis, prices fell by about 30 percent, said Anya Levitov, a managing partner at Evans Property Services. Since then the market has been slow to recover — though the luxury sector has rebounded.

“Most expensive new luxury developments today cost more than in 2008,” Ms. Levitov said, “but that is probably the only segment where precrisis levels have been reached and exceeded.”

The average price per square meter for a Moscow home runs $6,000 to $9,000, but luxury homes can cost $25,000 to $35,000 a square meter, said Nadezhda Kot, the head of local sales at Moscow Sotheby’s International Realty. Many of these high-end homes are concentrated in a neighborhood called the Golden Mile, between the Moscow River and Ostozhenka Street, which has a number of new upscale residential developments alongside historic Art Nouveau mansions.

“Last year,” Ms. Kot said, “the maximum price paid was $40 million for a villa in Ostozhenka, the Golden Mile.”

In Mirax Park, apartments typically bring $10,000 to $13,000 a square meter, but this apartment is priced at $17,333 a square meter because it is being sold with all its furnishings and finishes, according to Ms. Yurgeneva.

WHO BUYS IN MOSCOW

Foreigners typically prefer to rent in Moscow, as relatively few live there permanently, brokers said. Some Americans and Europeans, who are tax-paying residents and based in Moscow for work, do decide to settle and buy a house, Ms. Levitov said.

According to Ms. Kot, foreigners generally buy in a range not exceeding $2 million.

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By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Chestnut Hill Realty, a real estate company also known as CHR, said it was able to lease 54 new apartments in Norwood complex called Norwest Woods within three months of those apartments going on the market, another sign of a tight rental market in Greater Boston.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, the vacancy rate for the local rental market dropped to a nine-year low of 4 percent, and rents were at record highs, according to data from Reis Inc., a New York company that tracks real estate activity. Those trends were largely driven by an insufficient inventory of rental housing to meet increased demand, analysts said. During tough economic times, many people have chosen to live in rental housing rather than become home owners.

Chestnut Hill Realty said it recently completed contruction of the final phase of an upgrade project at Norwest Woods. The final phase was the building of 54 one-bedroom apartments. The entire project called for the construction of four buildings with a total of 91 apartments. The upgrade project began in 2008, the firm said. The existing complex had 322 apartments. With the completion of the upgrade project, Norwest Woods now has 406 apartments. (A few older apartments were eliminated from the mix.)

Citing data from Marcus Millichap, a national real estate investment and research firm, Chestnut Hill Realty noted that 644 new apartment units were built in the Greater Boston area in 2011. The new apartments at Norwest Woods represented 8.4 percent of that total.

“Although the demand for apartment space has risen sharply in Eastern Massachusetts, a distressed economy and high barriers to entry have prevented production from keeping pace,� Edward Zuker, founder and chief executive of Chestnut Hill Realty, said in a statement. “This new construction helps meet an important need in the region.�

Established in 1969, Chestnut Hill Realty owns and manages about 4,000 units in 30 apartment communities in Greater Boston and Rhode Island.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.

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