Anybody at all familiar with Kyiv’s new-build apartment market will be also be acquainted by the “build ‘em high, build ‘em cheap, sell ‘em as expensively as possible” concept adopted by many developers, whose idea of a new apartment is a shell without any internal fixtures – sometimes even windows – sold at prices that are nothing short of eye-watering.
International developer Seven Hills’ residential Park Avenue project may not be cheap, with per-square metre prices at USD 1,900, but in terms of what buyers will get for their money, Seven Hills general director Ari Schwartz says they will be delivered as a complete product at a quality level hitherto unseen in high-rise apartment developments in Kyiv.
The difference, he says, is rooted in the company’s basic attitude to business in Ukraine. As a multinational firm with a long string of multi-million dollar projects behind it from skyscrapers in New York to London’s docklands, Seven Hills has a reputation for delivering quality. “We are not here to make a quick buck – this market has way too much long-term potential for that. We’re here to deliver an international-standard product to our clients which will serve as a reference for our next project in Ukraine… and the next one… and the next one.”
Built for living
While some others think of how fast and how cheaply they can throw up an apartment block, Schwartz says Seven Hills thinks of how a sustainable, pleasant environment can be constructed. Park Avenue, with more than 1,100 apartments planned in total as well as shops, a commercial centre, leisure and domestic service facilities, will be more a neighbourhood than an anonymous collection of buildings and therefore must be planned as such. “Take something simple such as the lobby and corridors,” he says. “Typically in Ukraine they are dark and tight – the corridors often feel like dark tunnels and the lobbies have low ceilings and poor lighting. It’s hardly inviting to the resident or the visitor.”
Instead, Schwartz says, Park Avenue will feature carefully designed lighting, open and friendly architecture, and in the public areas, none of those dingy corridors or low ceilings. “People have to feel like they are at home or we will have failed,” he says directly.
The aforementioned core-and-shell-only concept so familiar to Kyiv is also anathema to Seven Hills, Schwartz says. “We will deliver homes that are ready to move into,” he says. “And our fit-out won’t be the kind of cheap quality you see all too often elsewhere – we have contracts with high-end international suppliers for everything from bathroom tiles to light switches and because we’re buying in bulk, we get significant discounts that a resident buying on their own will never get. And because we’re selling this as part of the package, to the average buyer the extra cost involved over a period of say 30 years is very small – it’s the equivalent of one glass of cola per day. It certainly beats shelling out USD 20-30,000 for it separately right at the beginning.”
It all sounds well and good, I say, but what happens when some faceless speculator comes along with a wad of cash and offers to snap up 20 or 50 apartments which he’ll then leave empty while they swiftly appreciate? Bang goes your friendly neighbourhood atmosphere, no?
No need to sell out to speculators
“We’re not encouraging speculators,” Schwartz answers. “Other developers will give them quite considerable discounts but we don’t see it that way. If we do that, we would indeed risk losing that atmosphere of having a real neighbourhood occupied by people who are investing personally in that environment which would undermine our whole aim of creating something that is socially viable and pleasant for its stakeholders.”
And you probably don’t need to discount either in such a booming market either, I venture. “No we don’t,” Schwartz admits. “We’re not in a situation where we need to be tempted by speculators looking to take dozens of flats off our hands. The most we will offer anyone in terms of discount is only a few percent.”
