Oct 12, 2007: Euro-Standard Cottages To Be Built Outside City

By Yekaterina Dranitsyna

Staff Writer

Two new cottage villages designed according to the standards of European and American residential suburbs will be completed in the Pushkinsky district by 2010. They will provide housing for 18,000-20,000 people, Regnum news agency reported Tuesday.

The Novaya Izhora and Slavyanka villages will be constructed by Baltros managing company, which plans to provide the cottages with connections to gas pipelines, electricity networks, water supply, cable television and the Internet. The company will also construct a link-road between Sofiiskaya Ulitsa and Kolpinskoye Highway to provide residents with direct access to the ring-road.

“From January 2008, once we obtain approval from the General Plan for the Development of St. Petersburg, we will start constructing residential complexes in Novaya Izhora and Slavyanka on a mass scale,” Regnum cited Konstantin Simakov, vice-president of Baltros, as saying Tuesday. Prices for cottages will be announced later, Simakov said.

According to Baltros’ web site, a new residential district will be created, along with the necessary engineering infrastructure at a 220-hectare territory in Slavyanka. About 1.3 million square meters of housing will be constructed in four- and five-story buildings.

In Novaya Izhora, Baltros has constructed a plant to produce standard panel framework cottages. In April this year the plant produced the first standard cottages of a total area of 133 square meters each. The plant’s production capacity is 60 cottages a month. After expanding its production lines, the plant will be capable of producing up to 2,000 cottages a year.

At a 285-hectare territory in Novaya Izhora, over 3,000 individual cottages, duplexes and townhouses will be constructed. The village will house up to 20,000 residents, becoming part of the national “Affordable Housing” project.

Mikhail Bimon, director for marketing and development at Peterburgskaya Nedvizhimost Corporation, indicated that in the city’s suburbs, townhouses are the most popular type of development.

Within 10 kilometers from the city Bimon listed over 30 cottage projects that are being developed at the moment. According to Peterburgskaya Nedvizhimost, prices vary between $1,540 and $4,400 per square meter. In St. Petersburg itself, Bimon named seven cottage projects.

“Infrastructure in those cottage villages is good. As a rule, residents use the city’s engineering networks and do not face problems typical for remote villages,” Bimon said.

“However, the number of free land plots is decreasing, especially in the Kurortny, Primorsky and Vyborgsky districts, and the price of land is increasing at a fast pace. Constant traffic jams can already be seen anywhere on the way to St. Petersburg,” he said.

After completing the Novaya Izhora and Slavyanka projects, Baltros will start developing standard cottages in the Central and Privolzhsky federal districts.