Moving to Russia: open the exciting possibilities!

Over the last years, Relocation services in Russia have been growing in popularity. Largely this is related to the invitation of foreign employees to work in the existing and newly opened representative offices in Russia, owing to the growing attraction of major Russian brands for highly qualified specialists and failure to find well paid work at home-country.

Some foreigners come without an invitation, just to earn money. In any case, the search of properties for rent, as a basis of Relocation services has been in demand for more than 20 years.

Moving to any country is associated with a number of difficulties faced by every person. It is always a hard decision to start a new life in Russia for all foreign families. Experience has shown that for the majority of them the new life begins in Russia. Foreign visitors are faced with an entirely new mentality, outlook on life, not easy language, new difficult pronunciation, unusual cuisine and traditions.

Unfortunately, foreigners from many European countries often stereotype Russian conditions of life as unfavorable and call Russian citizens as "evil Russians".

People believe that the streets of our country are dangerous: no doubt, there are robberies, rapes, frauds and so on at every step. In many respects, it is rooted to the foreign films, where Russian are represented in bad ways.

But when foreign guests live in Russia for some time, participate in our great national holidays (New Year, Maslenitsa festival, Easter, the Day of Victory, etc.), considering the largesse of Russian people, nutritional quality and extraordinary taste of Russian cuisine, they don’t want to leave any more. In Moscow, foreign families find a wide variety of activities for children at any time of the year, as couples or single people find entertainment for every taste and budget.

Most foreigners coming to work in Russia prefer to use the services of orientation programs aimed at adaptation to local realities. Confidence Group arrange such tours when foreigners arrived in Moscow can familiarize with the styles of the properties for rent, prices, types of buildings, go to the fitness centers, medical centers, international schools and kindergartens; receive the information about the different areas of Moscow, see the golf and tennis clubs, learn of the peculiarities and structure of Moscow.

As a rule, during such tours, the foreigners begin to navigate at the city, they develop a vision of the future housing. Usually after the trial (orientation) tour, the foreign citizen already has an understanding with respect to the preferred area of ​​residence, as well as the type of apartment, layout, and other search criteria.

When you move to another country, it is important to choose the right Relocation Company. It is not enough just to find an apartment or house for rent. It is necessary to find a company that will help even with the transportation of and furniture and belongings, select a school or kindergarten, help with technical issues, which will occur for the duration of stay in any case.

It is also important to insure the legal transparency of the transaction, to insure that all the documents are checked and correct, as well as the contract is signed with the current owner of the property.

The cooperation with unfair providers may bear the risks of losing time, money, and at the very worst circumstances - homelessness.

Confidence Group offers a full package of Relocation services designed to help foreigners and their families, including:

• home-finding for the rent 
• school / kindergarten search
• home-staff search
• preview tours
• technical support for the entire period of stay in the apartment,
• translation services,
• legal support,
• transport support and etc.

The mission of our company - to facilitate the transfer and adaptation of our clients in Russia.

For historical reasons, the market of rental housing in Moscow belonged to the owners. The market was overfilled with the demand. Perhaps, for the owners it was the golden age: they were convinced that if neither this client, the other exactly would rent a house. Many property owners in order to save their time appointed apartment’s views for few potential tenants at the same time with a difference of 10-15 minutes and organized a kind of show. Such attitude was outrageous for the tenants, especially foreign ones, anyway, it helped to illustrate how strong the competition is.

After the economic crisis had stroked up in 2014, many companies closed their representative offices in Russia, what inevitably led to an outflow of foreign employees, and, consequently, demand in the market fell sharply. Foreigners left the apartments and returned home, increasing competition among property owners. Therefore, the owners were forced to reduce rental rates to attract tenants. At the end of 2015, we observed a decrease in the cost of apartments by 30% compared to 2014 year. Moreover, the owners became more loyal, ready to bargain and discuss any additional conditions. Previously they could choose "easy" client, but now the situation has changed up to "reverse", because otherwise the apartment will be idle, not bringing the desired income.

This situation remains from the end of 2015. The supply is significantly increasing in the central areas.

At the same time, the demand is quite different: 

  

Rental property supply in the most popular areas of Moscow:

Of course, it is very important to find "close" owner, able to create all conditions for a good, trusting relationship that means long-term cooperation, which is important for both sides. In our practice, we faced with situations when the owners changed their minds at the stage of signing the contract and refused to conclude it, or some difficulties and reluctance to understand the customer arose at the stage of negotiations. Of course, it is not sensible to rely just on the ethics of owner, but certainly, the owner loyalty and honesty are of great importance.

Another thing to consider is technical support. It is a known fact that during the period of residence, most tenants are faced with technical difficulties, which seem simply catastrophic to most tenants because they do not speak Russian, misunderstand the process of technical support by municipal organizations and other details.

We should remember that the choice of kindergarten or school is important when moving with children. In Moscow, there are five international accredited schools, issuing IGCSE, IB, A-level - certificates, which give an advantage to enter almost any university in the world.

Tuition fees at schools ranging from 16,000 to 24,000 euros per year (from 1,200,000 rubles to 1,700,000 rubles per year). Education is in English, so future student must pass an evaluation test to determine the level of English language proficiency, as well as the knowledge gained in the previous school.

There are 8-10 international kindergartens in Moscow. Enrollment is at the age from 16-18 months to 4 years, in some cases - to 7 - 11 years. Depending on the institution, the rules of the enrollment also involve the test to determine the level of English proficiency. At the age of 4 years, children usually start attending pre-school, located at the school in which the child will enter after kindergarten.

As far as we are concerned, we provide mediation in the search, negotiation and managing all formalities in schools and kindergartens.

Another issue faced by many families when moving - transportation of furniture and belongings. Confidence Group cooperates only with reliable partners, working in the freight market for many years. We are proud to say that we provide high-quality service and guarantee a delicate delivery and transfer within the specified period.

The evaluator together with an English-speaking representative come to the place, and make up preliminary calculations. Service men responsible for unassemble of the furniture who are mostly citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as soon as possible unassemble and deliver furniture to the point of arrival, and the assemblers assemble and arrange furniture at the specified place.

We consider many sudden situations may occur during the transportation that is why we take all responsibility for any damages to property up to 3,000,000 rubles.

There are many nuances and issues that arise when living in Russia, such as the organization of excursions, purchase of tickets for concerts, tourist trips, as well as movement on the territory of Russia, as Russian law is quite complicated and there are violations (migration - when traveling by car, etc.), which may entail deportation from the country without the right of re-entry.

Our mission is to remove any difficulties that occur when moving, adapting, reduce stress, save your time, and give full support, that you have only the best impressions of living in Russia.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Head of the relocation department Julia Tsaregorodtseva. Tel.: 8-963-729-28-55, e-mail: Yulia.Tsaregorodtseva@confidencegroup.ru.