Apartment gallery

Russian Visa

Long term rentals

Apartments for sale

Maps of Russia

FEATURED PROPERTIES
FOR RENT

1 ROOMS

Podolskaya 17

contemporary studio

1200 USD/month

Make inquiry

ROOMS

Vladimirski 1

STUDIO, 2 levels the best location

1950 USD/month

Make inquiry

Russian Building characteristics

Printer-Friendly Format

There are 4 basic building types in St. Petersburg; pre-revolutionary, Stalin era, residential region buildings (built in the sixties and seventies) and newly constructed buildings. Almost every building in the city constitutes a variation of one of these styles.

Pre-revolutionary buildings really capture the spirit of Saint Petersburg.

Pre-revolutionary

They range from some of the oldest constructions in St Petersburg dating from the mid 18th century up until buildings from the early 20th century. The majority of buildings in the city center are of this type. They usually have an interesting facade, main entrance from the front and a "black" entrance or servants' entrance from the rear. The apartment ceilings tend to be from between 3 and 4.5 meters high. They may have interesting plaster work on them and the floors may still be the original, wooden parquet. The front entrance is usually quite grand and sometimes consists of a marble staircase. Apartments in the buildings may have antique porcelain stoves or fireplaces in them. If the apartment is 5 stories high or lower, there is a good chance that it does not have an elevator. This of course, is not such a big problem if you happen to live on the first 3 floors. The building may have undergone something known as "capital renovation" which means that at some point over the past 30 years, the city improved or replaced the building's piping and electrical communications and most likely reinforced and reconstructed the floor beams and other building support structures. Many of the buildings have not undergone this type of renovation - some of them are in relatively good shape and some are in poor shape (not that they will fall down or anything but the water pressure may be too low, there may be occasional leaks, etc.).

Stalin building

Stalin era buildings are more typical in Moscow than in St. Petersburg but there are still entire regions of St. Petersburg outside of the center that consist of this type of architecture. They are solidly built buildings constructed from between the late 1930's and the late 1950's. Ceilings are usually around 3 meters high. They have parquet floors, decent stairwells usually with elevators and solid looking facades.

Residential region buildings are the mass constructed, almost identical looking buildings that flood the regions outside of the center of St. Petersburg. They are basically large, concrete blocks. When you are walking around these areas sometimes you feel like you are on Mars. Often the landscape is quite stark.

Residential region

There is even a famous Soviet film always shown around New Year's time about how a guy from Moscow gets drunk after going to a Russian banya and ends up flying to St. Petersburg instead of home to Moscow. He then gets into a taxi, drives to the same address as his home in Moscow (ul. Stroiteli), takes the elevator upstairs, walks down the hall to his apartment, opens it with his key and finds a beautiful Russian woman inside - it isn't his apartment! It is really a duplicate apartment in a duplicate building on a duplicate street in St. Petersburg! Do you get the idea? Actually, something like this happened to me once - if you are ever visiting us at City Realty, I'll tell you the story. Some of these buildings are still in decent shape and some are kind of run down, it all really depends on the particular place. If you rent in one of these places, you feel like you could be living in any Russian city (you don't feel like you are in St. Petersburg), you could be in Chelyabinsk! The interior utility communications (piping and electricity, etc.) are typically in better condition than most places in the center that have not gone through capital renovation.

Newly constructed

These buildings are going up throughout the city. The ones in the center usually have extra features such as good quality, imported elevators, Western finishing work, nice entrances and possibly lobbies with security and doormen. These of course also come with higher price tags. With a newly constructed building, you are pretty sure of having a decent entrance and stairwell plus utility communications in good shape. While there has not been a huge boom in construction in St. Petersburg compared to Moscow and therefore, these buildings are not as plentiful, there still are a number of properties for rent in buildings such as these.

There are 2 basic types of building entrances - the main entrance and the entrance through the courtyard (dvor in Russian).

Street entrance	Foyer

Generally, the main entrances from the street are much more popular and fetch a premium in terms of rental price vs. courtyard entrances. Entrances from the street are usually the old, pre-revolutionary main entrances to the building. This usually consists of a small foyer and the beginning of a relatively wide stone or marble staircase. St. Petersburg is famous for still having unrenovated entrances and stairwells as opposed to Moscow where many of the entrances and stairwells have been renovated up to Western standards. In St. Petersburg, the majority of entrances are still relatively dirty, dimly lit and require cosmetic renovation. There are still not many buildings with concierges or security. Although this problem is being solved slowly, St. Petersburg is still many years away from approaching the West in terms of entrance cleanliness and safety. The usual type of lock on the building is a coded lock which is good and usually keeps unwanted people away from the building. A better lock is the Russian domophone or intercom, electric lock. Usually with this lock, strangers cannot get into the building. As stated above, entrances with security or entrances that have been renovated truly affect the rental prices of apartments in the building. Be prepared to pay more for a good entrance - but understand that you will like the apartment more. As with anywhere else, you get what you pay for.

Buildings in St. Petersburg consist of the main part of the building facing the street with an arch that allows cars and people to make their way to the back of the building and into the courtyard. There may be just one courtyard or there may be another arch leading to a second and even sometimes third courtyard as you go deeper and deeper into the core of the building. Courtyards usually can be classified into 3 different types:

European renovated courtyards - these have undergone reconstruction and are usually paved with new cobblestones or bricks, are well lit and actually quite pleasant. More and more buildings in the center are going through this type of reconstruction but it is still somewhat of a rarity.
Large, green courtyards - these are quite nice. They consist of a large interior with perhaps a small garden area in the middle. They tend to be sunny and light.
Small, dimly lit courtyards - in Russian there is a special word for this type - the "well", they are always dark, like some type of eternal twilight and you truly feel as if you are inside of a well when you enter.

Courtyard entrance

Most entrances from the courtyards are "black" entrances or servants entrances.

Dark courtyard

They are usually quite narrow and have no foyer. As with the main entrances, depending on the neighbors, they can be either quite clean or quite grubby. The locks on the doors are also either coded or electric, intercom locks. Apartments can still be very nice if they have their windows facing the courtyard but in this case, the courtyard should be either a European type or a large green type. It can get depressing if you are living in an apartment with a view onto a "well" - you will be living in an eternal twilight. However, apartments with these types of views can be relatively cheaper than apartments that face nice courtyards or onto the street.

In St. Petersburg, be prepared to consider many apartments that have entrances from and windows looking out onto the courtyard. This is because more than 70% of apartments in the center face the courtyard.

Stairwells have the same problems as entrances. St. Petersburg stairwells tend to be unrenovated and dimly lit. Depending on the people in the neighboring apartments, the entrance and stairway may be clean. It is extremely common that a person will go visiting, walk through an unrenovated entrance and up a dimly lit stairwell only to be welcomed into an extremely nice apartment. That is St. Petersburg for you.

Typical stairwell

Don't let any of this scare you though. It is all quite typical and slowly changing as more and more people do nicer renovation. Another thing is that St. Petersburg is a relatively safe city. People usually do not have any trouble in their own stairwells - especially if they live in the center and the courtyards are becoming better lit as well.

Nice stairwell

Go To:

• Location
• Level of renovation
• Examples of prices