Apartment Shopping in Kyiv

If you’re looking for an affordable long-term apartment to rent in Kiev, there are a couple of ways to do it: the easy way and the hard way; or, put otherwise, the cheap way and the expensive way.

You can rent apartments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And in each case by renting an apartment or room instead of staying in a hotel you will save money and taste more of the local flavor. Within the sphere of apartment rentals, there are as always the expensive and the less expensive options. Here are some hints on how to navigate the market to find what works best for you and your budget.

By yourself

Expect this to be the cheapest and most difficult method of apartment hunting. A google search in English for apartment rentals in Kiev almost exclusively yields sites that service short-term visitors with deep pockets and corporate credit cards. (A search in Russian yields similar sites or databases associated with real-estate agencies.)

As of late 2006 there is no such database, such as www.craigslist.org, where private individuals can advertise rental units without channeling through an agency. However, private individuals do find official and unofficial ways to advertise their real estate.

Aviso, the weekly local real-estate want ads, is available fresh every Friday at any press kiosk. (You can also choose from other print publications at the newsstand.) It lists apartments for sale and rent according to the transaction method, whether by agent or by owner (without commission). It also posts ads for real-estate agents. If you skip the first few pages of the section on apartment rentals you’ll bypass the ads for expensive short-term apartments (usually priced per diem) and discover the flats within the current market range.

Alternatively, you might get lucky, if you’re very attentive, to find an advertisement for a suitable apartment stuck to a streetlight, ad board, stop sign, bus stop, or other immobile, inanimate vertical object on the street.

In all cases you’ll need to know Russian or Ukrainian or someone who knows Russian or Ukrainian, especially when it comes time to phone owners, talk money, and finalize the deal, with or without a contract.

Perhaps your best chance for finding a rental on your own is to spread the word to any and all acquaintances that you’re planning a move and search for an apartment (or room, which is a cheaper option). You can also ask such contacts, if you have them, which neighborhoods they might recommend along your interests and price range. If nothing else you can pass this information on to a real-estate agent should you decide to go that route.

Tryukraine.com is one of very few websites that provides members with free online advertising space for landlords and renters alike, as well as a place to make contacts who may be able to help you find English-speaking agents, potential landlords and suitable housing.

Real-estate agency

Certainly the most convenient, time-saving, and worry-free method of house hunting, a real-estate agency offers everything you expect and possibly more, including knowledge of English and of Western housing standards. There are big agencies and small agencies, but probably the best agency is the one that a friend or an acquaintance recommends.
In this country the renter pays the finders fee, which usually equals half the cost of one month’s rent. Since this commission is obviously steeper for more expensive apartments, realtors may lack the incentive to locate availabilities within a lower price range. Armed with this knowledge you have a couple of options: one, know and trust your agent and her work ethic; two, tempt your agent with a personal monetary bonus for her in addition to the official commission; or, two, contact other agencies, which in this boomtown are suddenly everywhere.

Negotiating

Previously, rental agreements were made verbally, but as the legal system moves toward consistency if not stabilization, and as renting becomes more of an official business instead of a matter of financial exigency, contracts are becoming the norm. Expect to sign a contract for one year (but usually no more than twelve months in order to avoid triggering taxes) and, often, to pay two months’ rent in advance. Not every landlord will require or desire a contract, though it may be in your best interest to insist on one, especially as a foreigner in a volatile, possibly inflated, real-estate market. If you’re not looking for a yearlong agreement, ensure that the contract contains a clause that allows for an early exit given a specified period of advanced notice.

Conditions and Prices

As in any metropolitan city, real estate is most expensive in the center and less expensive as you radiate out toward the edge of the metro system, beyond the metro system to the suburbs, and on beyond the reach of relatively convenient shuttle busses and into the exurbs and the country. Besides this, other factors affect the price of a rental, including size, condition, and proximity to public transportation, especially to the metro. The usual recipe. In Kiev, though, each of these ingredients has its special flavor unique to Eastern Europe.

First, when discussing size, Realtors usually reserve statistical references such as “price per square meter” to the buying and selling of property. In renter’s parlance you’re more likely to encounter price as a factor of the number of rooms. The number of rooms includes everything but the kitchen and the bathroom, perhaps because each room is multipurpose, perhaps because the layout of many Soviet era apartments features a corridor that leads to the doors of each room. In this sense, owning an apartment is like having a number of dorm rooms, plus the kitchen and bathroom, all to yourself. For an as-is two-room apartment in a central neighborhood expect to pay between US $550 and $800.

Second, age and normal deterioration aside, the condition of most Soviet-era flats makes no pretense to comparison with Western standards. Especially in the high-rise apartment buildings, construction is famously shabby, heating and plumbing technology wonderfully outdated and inefficient, insulation a matter of speculation and personal initiative, and the concept of modern conveniences a misnomer, since most of the buildings are pushing thirty or forty years old.

Except in the most recently renovated flats, you should be surprised to find the usual conveniences such as garbage disposals, dishwashers, air conditioning, counter space, cupboard space, closet space (closets in general), washing machines and clothes dryers. In the past three or four years, as the price of real estate has doubled, tripled--and in some cases quadrupled--new, stylish high-rises have pushed up into the skyline. These new constructions come with all the modern conveniences of a modern, often Western, price tag. Many of the older apartments have undergone the so-called Euro-renovation, which, though sometimes makeshift or improvised given the layout of an individual apartment, can prove quite comfortable and convenient. For renovated apartments, a loosely applied term, prepare to pay between $700 and $2000 for two rooms in one of the central neighborhoods.

Third, proximity to a metro station means almost everything, despite the fact that there are numerous alternative modes of public transportation, including shuttle buses (“marshrutka”), trams, buses, and trolleybuses. Besides these methods, official and unofficial taxis can get you from the center on a cold night to your well-priced rental on the outskirts of town for between six and eight dollars (official taxis are pricier). Expect the price of a two-room apartment near a metro to be from 10 to 20 percent more than a comparable apartment far from a metro station. Though the metro system is quite convenient, if often overcrowded, you may find other forms of transportation more useful depending on your most consistent destinations. If you can navigate the city without exclusive dependence on the metro, you’re likely to find a better bargain.