OBOLON ON ITS WAY
970s to alleviate Kyiv’s acute housing shortage, Obolon District was once the epitome of Soviet‑era planning – a dreary mass of multistory apartment blocks built on drained swampland.
But the suburb, located on the right bank of the Dnipro River in the north of the city, has undergone a major transformation over the last four years, and it is now one of the hottest residential locations for the capital’s growing upper‑middle class, who are driving demand for luxury living space.
Recognizing the demand for such housing, Obolon District Administration in 1998 commissioned the district’s general contractor, Kyiv‑ miskbud‑1, to start construction of the luxury apartment complex named 3‑B. The complex was designed by the Kyivproekt‑5 architectural office. Experts say that the complex, which is located along the Dnipro on Heroyiv Stalingrada street, quickly attracted the city’s wealthier citizens, and the completed sections of the complex now boast an occupancy rate of nearly 100 percent.
“Although prices were relatively high, the 3‑B housing units were bought up quickly,” Kyivmiskbud‑1 manager Serhy Bezugly said.
Bezugly said that the complex’s future tenants are required to make a down payment of 30 percent of the apartment’s cost, and pay the rest when the complex is completed. He said that the down payments finance the cost of the construction, but declined to provide the estimated cost of the project.
He said that the firm is currently selling space in parts of the complex that are scheduled for completion in 2004.
Serhy Shelkov, a broker with the Blagovest real estate company, said that demand for luxury space currently exceeds supply and people have difficulty finding apartments for sale.
Bezugly said that in a bid to keep up with demand, his company is building apartments without installing standard home furnishings, like kitchen fittings. He said that offering shell and core apartments not only cuts down on costs and construction time, but it allows buyers to plan their apartments according to their own tastes and preferences.
Bezugly said that the 3‑B apartment complex also includes recreational, fitness and business facilities.
“While the first floors of Soviet‑era residential buildings were reserved for residential apartments, these spaces [in the 3‑B apartment complex] have now become prime locations for retailers of consumer goods, entertainment complexes, and supermarkets,” Bezugly said.
He said that Kyivmiskbud‑1 has embarked on the construction of another residential complex in Obolon District called 3‑4.
“And that’s only the beginning. Once started, there’s no going back,” Valentin Isak, the director of Kyivproekt‑5 said.
He said that 3‑A was approved by the district administration last year and is planned as a 400,000‑square‑meter complex stretching from the Moskovsky Bridge to Heroyiv Stalingrada.
Isak said that the complex is planned to resemble a cascade of luxury buildings along the Dnipro that gradually decrease in height from 19 stories to 5 stories, with 70 percent of the apartments offering a waterfront view of the river.
He said that units within the complex would range from 56‑square‑meter single‑room apartments to five‑room, bi‑level apartments of 318‑square‑meters. The average cost is Hr 2,465 per square meter.
In addition to the retail stores, office space and entertainment venues are planned for the first floors, Isak said that the project would also have restaurants, a hotel complex, a water park and other recreational facilities.
Kyivmiskbud‑1 has also entered the private‑home construction business – a relatively undeveloped segment of the Ukrainian market. It is building 3‑story “cottages” with a minimum area of 464 square meters as part of the new complex. Bezugly said that one square meter in the houses costs nearly twice as much in the apartments, but those who can afford it are willing to pay the price to own a detached home in a prestigious location.
“Despite the fact that in Ukraine people used to believe that an apartment in a multi‑story building was the best living space, more and more wealthy people want to live in houses,” Bezugly said.
He said that a home in the district also comes with a garage, a pool, a sauna and a landscaped property.
In addition to Kyivmiskbud, private real estate firms also have plans for developing Obolon.
Pickard & Co., a real estate developer and business‑consulting firm, said it plans to build a luxury complex called River Park on a peninsula in the district.
The firm said that the complex, which is intended to house foreign diplomats, would be built on 148.8 hectares of land and would include 250 luxury homes, an 18‑hole golf course, a marina, an equestrian center, a five‑star hotel, an indoor swimming pool and tennis courts, among other amenities.
Pickard’s director of real estate, Serhy Bout, said that the company was still discussing the plan with the Obolon District Administration and was unable to disclose further details, including the cost of construction.
