THE TROUBLE WITH being a Russian property-buyer is that everyone thinks you’re Roman Abramovich and whacks 10 per cent on the price. The Russians have woken up to this, and are becoming increasingly cunning when buying a home. Several agents in London have taken on Russian-speakers to make Russians feel more at home and to emphasise in their own language that they are not being ripped off.

Gulnara Long, of Property Vision, an agency that acts only for buyers, says that Russians make up a tenth of the firm’s client list. “When Russians started buying, there was a belief that they were all as rich as Abramovich,” she says, “and lots of them were being overcharged. I’ve heard agents say ‘The Russians will pay more’, and two years ago they did because they didn’t know the London market. Once property agents started employing Russians, that kind of sharp practice stopped. Property Vision looks at a property and works out the realistic value, which may be far lower than the asking price.”

London, only three hours by private jet from Moscow, has become the city of choice for the new Russian elite that has made big money in the past decade and is keen to diversify offshore.

Long says that most of them like to be in the centre of London, around Hyde Park, but there are lots of Russians in Maida Vale and St John’s Wood. They are not keen on Richmond and Wimbledon, which are popular with other international buyers, and they never go south of the river. There is also an enclave around Ascot. She says: “They prefer to live all on one level, ideally in a very large flat, with clean, modern lines, and they don’t like townhouses because in London most of them are narrow and have too many floors. It’s a myth that Russians like lots of ornamentation — it used to be the case, but tastes change.”

Property Vision has offices in several countries, and the market in the South of France is particularly buoyant: Russians are the second-biggest buyers there after the British.

Lulu Egerton, of Lane Fox’s Chelsea office, says that the Russians have rapidly become very clever buyers. “They are smart movers, although they operate in a different way from other buyers. They always seem to turn up for viewings in groups of four, so you are never really sure which is the one doing the buying. They are all well-dressed and never say much. Roman Abramovich, for instance, speaks excellent English, but when he buys property he always takes along an interpreter. I think that it’s a way of watching what’s happening without the distraction of having to talk too much. Unlike the Arabs, Russians never haggle, and they are very location-driven — they like the kudos of being in Knightsbridge or Belgravia or anywhere near Kensington Palace, because the Russian Embassy is in Kensington. And they always have really top solicitors, such as Withers and Macfarlanes.”

Cluttons recently took on Andrei Tolstoy-Miloslavsky at its Queensway office to deal with the burgeoning Russian clientele, although he works with “all of the republics”. There are thought to be 250,000 Russian-speakers living in the UK, including people from all the Baltic states and Ukraine. “Our clients are not just the super-rich,” he says. “There are also people who are here to work for a big company.”

Miloslavsky says that the wealthy Russians favour London squares — Eaton Square, Cadogan Square — and Belgravia, St John’s Wood and Kensington. “They like purpose-built mansion blocks, not loft and warehouse conversions, or detached houses with off-street parking and good security. When they arrive, they like to have a security guard 24 hours a day, as they did at home, but after a few years they relax and realise that they can dispense with the guards.”

They also like everything to be in tiptop condition, he says, no damp patches on plaster, no creaking floorboards and, if the floors are wooden, they want oak, not laminate.

Miloslavsky expects that more Russians will be flashing their cash in London in the next few years, especially when the rouble becomes convertible in 2008 when the Baltic states join the World Trade Organisation. “I saw roubles on sale at Thomas Cook at Heathrow the other day,” he says, “which surprised me. The economy was collapsing, but now it’s going up at 6 per cent a year. Russia has oil, gas, precious metals and diamonds, and you can feel the difference in the economy when you visit Moscow — the restaurants are packed and there are lots of shops selling designer goods. No wonder they are spending heavily in the London market.”



Lane Fox, 020-7225 3866; Cluttons, 020-7792 2167; Property Vision, 020-7823 8388

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