They Call It What They Want: Why The Division Of Housing By Class Is Still A Conditional Matter

Photo: iStockphoto.com/Nikolay Tsuguliev

In the advertising of residential complexes, we constantly see an indication of the level of housing: comfort class, “business” and others. But what it is is not always clear. The clearest signs have formed in the “business” and “elite” classes — they can still be easily distinguished from each other. But the relatively young classes “comfort” and “comfort-plus” are still called the most vague. It seems that there is no economy-class housing left on the market at all. The thing is that in the absence of an official classification, each developer is free to name his product at his discretion, and buyers have to figure it out.

Participants of the Fontanka round table told how housing classes are formed today.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev/

Elena Boyko, head of Elena Boyko’s real estate agency Towngroup Photo: Mikhail Ognev/

Evgeny Beskrovny, Sales Director of LAR Developmentphoto: Mikhail Ognev /

Svetlana Denisova, Head of Sales Department of BFA — Development CJSC Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Bulat Mirzakhanov, Head of Product Development in St. Petersburg, A101 Group of Companies Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Natalia Korotaevskaya, Commercial Director of the Aquilon Group in St. Petersburg and LOFoto: Mikhail Ognev/

Photo: Mikhail Ognev/

Traditionally, the St. Petersburg housing market was divided into economy, comfort, business and elite classes. But, as Olga Trosheva, Director of the St. Petersburg Real Estate Consulting Center (Setl Group), told Recently, the boundaries between them have been blurring more and more. Now the class of an object is most often determined by the characteristics of the location. And therefore, objects with a successful location are a priori classified higher than the same ones, but in a less advantageous place. The quality of construction and finishing materials, engineering equipment and the level of landscaping also play a role. At the same time, the latter parameter is often higher in more remote sites — this is done to attract buyers there.

Elena Boyko, head of the Elena Boyko Town Group real estate agency, stressed: everything starts from the place where the complex is being built.

— There is the cost of land and the cost of bringing communications. Based on these two criteria, the developer understands what class of housing he should build,” she says.

— The processes in all product classes are approximately similar, — continued Svetlana Denisova, Head of Sales Department at BFA — Development CJSC.Over the past fifteen years, the filling of classes has come very close to each other. Sometimes we disagree with the positioning of our colleagues’ objects. Legally, classes are not regulated in any way, so the developer decides for himself which to attribute his object to, which options to fill it with. And, as a rule, we see over- rather than under-positioning. Recently, against the background of rising prices per square meter, relatively inexpensive housing has been pushed out of the city.

Svetlana Denisova, Head of Sales Department of BFA — Development CJSC Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

According to her, there are objective reasons for this: expensive land and its shortage within the city boundaries, the high cost of connecting networks, the growing cost of construction and the huge social burden imposed on the developer. Therefore, the market is simply not able to offer low-rise housing on expensive land at a low price. But in the administrative boundaries of the city, on the outskirts, and in residential areas, it is required to build a lot of social squares — all this puts a burden on the cost per square meter. As the expert noted, if we add more expensive credit funds here, we will see the complexity of the situation.

Natalia Korotaevskaya, Commercial director of the Aquilon Group in St. Petersburg and LO, noted an important point: the consumer himself and his requirements are changing now. He considers not only the apartment, but also the house with its contents, layout, ceiling height, “chips” that force any developer to exceed the “minimum set” in each class. As a result, the appearance of intermediate classes, such as “comfort—plus” or “business-lite”, and the blurring of boundaries.

— For example, the buyer is no longer so important in the yards only children’s and even sports grounds — for him it’s just a standard. Now we need recreation areas for adults, for yoga classes. Therefore, developers are now attracting landscape design studios, and design bureaus for the design and decoration of front doors.

— There are attempts to create a housing accreditation system by class in our market. There are even examples of tables with descriptions,” says Bulat Mirzakhanov, Head of Product Development at A101 Group of Companies in St. Petersburg. — But do developers strictly adhere to these tables? The answer is no. As a rule, each major market player himself sets the criteria by which he classifies his project into one or another class. For example, now “economy” and “standard” have practically disappeared from the wording, the vast majority of projects are called “comfort”, although there are no fundamental changes there. Or the developer shyly does not indicate any class.

He identified several powerful economic factors of any development project that affect the concept of classiness: height, apartment layout, number of apartments per floor.

— It seems to me that there will undoubtedly be some chips in projects that overestimate their class, – he added, — but in spatial planning solutions we will see large houses, endless walls, not the most pleasant apartment design. Unfortunately, St. Petersburg does not stand out well from other developed markets in this regard. And what we call “chips” can flow from class to class without any logic at all.

— I would divide the housing market into comfort class, “business” and “elite”. And they differ not only in location,” continued Evgeny Beskrovny, Sales Director at LAR Development. — It is difficult to find a standard class project (formerly economy class) today, as it was five years ago. Among the trends, I would note the mass withdrawal to comfort-plus due to the filling of courtyards, playgrounds, landscaping and landscaping. This is required by the client, who now does not just get an apartment. Examples may be, for example, projects in Novosaratovka — these are relatively low-cost complexes outside the city, but at the same time they meet many standards of really high-quality housing.

Evgeny Beskrovny, Sales Director of LAR Developmentphoto: Mikhail Ognev /

Sergey Sofronov, Commercial Director of PSK Group, confirmed that the positioning in the market is partly caused by the needs of developers to sell more expensive and inflated expectations in this regard.

— Because of this, there is some confusion, classes are increasingly blurred, – he clarified. — The lack of classification prevents the consumer from understanding. Firstly, “economy” is replaced by “standard”, and then disappears from the information field altogether. Also, the business class is undergoing various changes with the allocation of subsections. There is still a fairly well—established segment between “business” and “elite” – “premium”, followed by the ultra-expensive deluxe class.

He added that the company also works in the field of service apartments, which are classified as hotel facilities. Everything has been written there for a long time: the assignment of stars follows a clear list of criteria for the object and the number of rooms.

— Now there is no generally accepted classification of housing on the market — the positioning of the project remains at the discretion of the developer, — continued Veronika Lezhneva, head of the department of comprehensive market research at GloraX.Our company has its own internal ranking system, according to which we determine not only our own projects, but also the competitive environment in order to more clearly build positioning and conduct analysis. In general, I believe that the class is not as important to the end user as the characteristics of the complex: location, landscaping, construction technologies, engineering.

Dmitry Efremov, head of the Department of Product Management and Marketing Research at Glavstroy St. Petersburg, noted two key points of class transformation: an increase in the share of comfort class in the mass market market and changes in the characteristics of “economy” and, as a result, “comfort”.

As for the structure of the offer by class in the agglomeration, according to the company, according to the results of the first quarter of 2024, the comfort class amounted to 76% in terms of the number of lots, whereas in December 2022 this figure was 65%. There were fewer economy class apartments over the same period: 10% in March 2024 versus 14% at the end of 2022. Moreover, there is a systematic transition of Economa projects from the city to the region: for example, in March this year, the region accounted for 94% of the proposals in the segment.

As the expert explained, such changes are caused by an increase in customer requests and state regulation of the work of developers, which leads to an increase in the area of apartments — including by limiting the size of construction, payment methods for studios.

— There is a methodology of the Russian Guild of Realtors, — he added, — where classification takes place according to a number of characteristics, up to glazing, finishing, entrance groups and door blocks. But it is advisory in nature, so many developers set the class independently, in isolation from the methodology. At the same time, the assignment of a higher one is often determined not by the characteristics, but by the need to position the object in such a way as to justify the price.

If we talk about mass—demand housing, recently, due to increased competition, economy—class projects have been washed out of the market, Olga Trosheva noted. Their share in demand has decreased to 9%. At the same time, the comfort and comfort-plus segments are actively developing, which accounted for 37% of transactions in the first quarter of the year compared to 14-18% in 2019-2021.

— It is important to note that the region has a great influence on determining the level of the project. What will be defined as comfort class in Moscow or St. Petersburg, in a small city with an undeveloped level of product solutions can be perceived as a business due to weak competition in the market, Veronika Lezhneva explained.

The same complex that was sold 7-10 years ago as “economy” is now called “comfort” due to the addition of some chips from the comfort class: playgrounds, complete decoration in the apartment. Elena Boyko explained:

— And nothing else, but it seems that the consumer already sees it a grade higher. It’s just that 10 years ago, such housing corresponded to that price and was called a “housekeeper”. Now prices have increased, but no matter what you call the class, it will still be the minimum price. At the same time, if you take 50 comfort-class complexes, they will all be different — somewhere 30 complexes will correspond to the mass comfort class, somewhere 10 will be a lower rank, and the other 10 will be closer to “comfort-plus”.

— It seems to me that the concept of “economy” is unfairly discredited, and developers shy away from calling a spade a spade if the legislation does not oblige them to do so, — Svetlana Denisova believes. — But such housing has been displaced outside the Ring Road, into the territory of the region, as the city is developing extensively, has gone beyond its own borders. Today, belonging to the Leningrad Region already determines both the burden borne by the developer and the price at which the project will be profitable. To understand whether “comfort” is in front of you or not, it’s worth starting with location and apartment design. If the object is literally on a busy highway, or if 70% of it is one—room studios, and two-bedroom apartments with an area of 47 square meters or there are none at all, then there is no question of any “comfort” here.

As for the “housekeeper”, according to the expert, he is in the greatest demand, so he will always live. It’s just that the market will grow in price together. Everything that is present in the city, by definition, is too expensive to be a “housekeeper”. And the developer is forced to fill the project in such a way as to meet the title of “comfort” and consumer expectations, as well as to withstand competition.

— If projects with a total share of 70% of studios and one-bedroom apartments are not considered comfort class, then practically nothing that is being built in St. Petersburg today is such, — continued Evgeny Beskrovny. — Because the mass customer votes in rubles: he is not able to afford a two-room or three-room apartment due to the large square footage, monthly payments, down payment. Therefore, I would not consider apartment design to be the main criterion for distinguishing between “economy” and “comfort”, but would still touch on location and content. In my opinion, today both in the city and in the region there are projects of outright economy class, but they are called “comfort”. Just because “economy” is not fashionable now. By the way, I would not be surprised if such a term is soon abolished in aviation. But if you remove economy class from the market in general, then the average check will immediately grow, which will make it impossible or uncomfortable for regional customers who, due to the cost of apartments in their regions, are basically focused on a lower price.

— We really have an internal division into classes in our company, — Natalia Korotaevskaya noted. Some of our regional projects have high ceilings, and even coworking spaces and children’s free clubs. The development of even some basic elements allows you to develop a comfort class inside and divide it into subclasses: there is a “comfort plus” and standard and economy class are leaving. The client’s mortgage payment is now in the first place, and with the advent of programs such as tranche mortgages, he can afford a little more. And we are already seeing a decrease in demand for studios and one-room apartments in favor of Euro apartments.

Bulat Mirzakhanov, Head of Product Development in St. Petersburg, A101 Group of Companies Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

— As for the comfort class, most developers within its framework are used to creating a playground inside the courtyard, which sometimes turns into a real Disneyland, — says Bulat Mirzakhanov. — For some reason – apparently out of habit — yards are given exclusively to children, and they should belong to everyone. A yard can be a completely different product with its own unique function — recreational or entertainment. For example, there may be a park with equipped recreation facilities. This will help in shaping the image of a more expensive product. But it is logical to take sports and other “noisy” activities outside the yard. This concept gives the project an additional advantage in the concept of “a courtyard where it is quiet.”

According to Sergey Sofronov, competition between developers forces us to put comfort-class characteristics into a standard product, which is why now all mass housing, one way or another, can be attributed to it. And within the class, large differences in characteristics are already visible.

— According to our projects, I can say that the price can vary very much inside the comfort class, – he says. — For example, we have projects in the segment for 180 thousand and 300 thousand rubles per sq.m. At the same time, I believe that location as such is not important for a comfort class project. A lot of consumer characteristics from higher segments moved to lower segments — from business class to comfort, from there to standard. And even from the premium class to the “business” there is a noticeable downward trend. Well, in addition, there is a minimum public infrastructure of the comfort-class project — wheelchair and bicycle, parking spaces, individual storerooms and the option of finished finishing are already mandatory.

Dmitry Efremov added that the share of economy class in the city is decreasing, as market changes force developers to add more and more additional options to their projects and improve them. And the choice when creating a new LCD between comfort and economy class falls on the first one. According to him, the current consumer would rather prefer a more expensive apartment or a smaller layout, but in a higher-quality facility or a better location.

— At the same time, on the one hand, it is necessary to separate the actual content and product options in the project, and on the other hand, the name of the quality class as such, declared by the developer during positioning, — he added. — Original architectural solutions, projects from well-known architectural studios, following the trends of “green construction”, a high class of energy efficiency, thoughtful landscaping concepts, more spacious layouts with a greater proportion of multi-room apartments, ceilings above 2.7 m have appeared in comfort-class housing. The decoration includes high—quality materials and modern engineering solutions, water purification systems. Of the interesting additions that have already become familiar, I will note the Wi-Fi and lounge areas in the courtyard, charging for electric vehicles, and the smart home system.

Business class is already a clearer and tougher segment in terms of positioning, according to most experts, so it is easier to identify it in the market.

— In my opinion, there are no subclasses in the business class and there cannot be, — continued Sergey Sofronov— but the desire of a particular developer to make some kind of marketing, added value to the project leads to divisions. So, the business lite will most likely turn out to be a comfort class. That is, the developer himself seems to be embarrassed to call the project business class, because he understands that he is falling short. Business class is already more characterized by location — it is either a central area or close. It will not be a complex of 25 floors, underground parking and a certain provision of parking spaces are required there. It is also desirable to have a complete absence of studios and certainly ceilings of 3 meters or more. 2.75 m is not business class.

— Indeed, “business” is an architecturally and engineering clearly defined class, — Veronika Lezhneva explained.Here we will no longer see clinker on the entire wall or wet plasters, these will be individual solutions, parking, ceiling height, engineering. But this is not a class for those who did not have enough money for luxury housing. For such a target audience, we have another layer called premium class. This is when the location is not elite, but it is no longer a business, and there seems to be enough money than for “business”. And this is one of the most difficult classes from the point of view of the target audience, because they are the ones who “fall through” into the business segment at the moment of any economic cataclysm. And so the “business” stands out very much, firstly, by location, and secondly, by price – and this is a combination of location, construction and installation work and engineering. That is, here the lower cost thresholds themselves will dictate a certain class level, and it will not work to start with a price per “square” of 180 or 200 thousand.

Svetlana Denisova did not agree that business class is so understandable.

— I think there is a place for business class projects in the most unexpected locations. — she thinks. — And I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple of years we see them in the region or some large newly built-up area like Murino. Always, as people outgrow their apartments, there remain strong ties to this location. At the same time, we see how the name of the developer and his reputation allows him to position his projects in a fairly modest location as a business class. However, according to the formal filling, we will not see anything magical there — except for some kind of conceptual thing like a singing stone.

The expert noted that it is in the mass segment that most investment purchases are made. And housing for your own living is increasingly a “business” class and higher.

— Business class seems to imply a low number of floors, but a 50-storey skyscraper can also easily be one, — says Bulat Mirzakhanov.— It is in this segment that there is a client who wants to live on the 40th floor with stunning views. If you can constantly get confused about “comfort”, then in the case of business there are clearer indicators: a different ratio of parking spaces, “chips” become more conscious and expensive. For example, smart home technologies are being actively introduced. In comfort-class projects, a smart home will be written in 90% of cases, but what is it? This is the name of an intercom that can shoot with a camera, a video surveillance system and even a security and fire alarm system, which is actually the norm. In business class, everything is more specific: for example, the control system for all convectors, radiators and air conditioning in the apartment is tied to a single point.

— In Moscow, business class is a height of up to 50 floors, panoramic windows to the floor, – added Elena Boyko. —And now Moscow is comparable to Dubai in terms of construction volumes, including due to its height. In St. Petersburg, the business class assumes a small number of floors. And then there is the problem of how the developer can fit everything inherent in the business class into this limited number of apartments. That is, developers in St. Petersburg are doing in low- and medium-rise buildings what is easier to do in Moscow due to the large number of floors. Also, some players, starting in the market, call their product business class, but at the same time they have a ceiling height of 2.5 m, no extended window openings and nothing at all corresponds to reality, except for the location. Therefore, I would like to see some common criteria on the market.

— As part of our new brand, we will build exclusively business and premium class projects, so we understand the differences quite well, – says Evgeny Beskrovny. — Business class projects are available not only in the center, but also in almost all areas of the city, and many of them are quite far away. So, in the southern part of the Moskovsky district there are simply unique projects, there are complexes with two-storey apartments for 30-40 million rubles in the rather remote Krasnoselsky, as well as in the north — in Vyborgsky. We have launched sales in Zelenogorsk, which is far from the center, but this is a Resort area, historically a premium destination — you can say, “St. Petersburg Barvikha”.

Therefore, according to the expert, in the business class, the location is still secondary, and the product, content, and apartment design come to the fore. There should be more square footage, fewer apartments per floor. It is hardly possible to be called business class if the ceilings in apartments are below three meters, wet plaster on the facade, painted bricks or windows made of plastic instead of aluminum. Two-storey apartments, housing with a separate entrance, and semi-detached land plots that can be used as patio areas are already appearing in the business class. And of course, business class is always a service: concierge, coworking, children’s room services, dog sitters.

Natalia Korotaevskaya, Commercial Director of the Aquilon Group in St. Petersburg and LOFoto: Mikhail Ognev/

— The business class has a completely different consumer, – Natalia Korotaevskaya continued. — For him, the name of the involved architectural or landscape bureau is important, for example, a separate studio can even work on naming and packaging of the product. The height in the St. Petersburg business class is only low-rise, but in Moscow on the contrary. In this segment, sometimes there is not one car space per family, but two or more, and hence the resulting chips — for example, rest rooms for drivers and so on. There is almost no finishing here, because everyone wants an exclusive design solution. And since “comfort” is also developing in all these parameters, it becomes more difficult for “business” to compete and it is also forced to develop — this is to the advantage of the consumer: he gets the best product at the expense of competition.

Dmitry EfremovI noted the main difference is the level of comfort of living. With the increase in class, developers offer large lot areas, privacy, premium finishes, advanced smart home options and management company services.

— In general, residential complexes of business class and above are characterized by a wide range of infrastructure facilities that are accessible only to residents, – he said. — In addition, there are various and unique landscaping facilities on the territory of such residential complexes in terms of architectural and design solutions and functionality.

In order to make some kind of clear structure by housing classes, it is worth considering objects according to a certain scheme, from larger to smaller, Elena Boyko believes. First, the location — the further away from the center, the smaller the class, the closer to the city center, the higher. The second is the proximity of the social infrastructure: the best schools and gymnasiums in the city assume a high class of the project.

Elena Boyko, head of Elena Boyko’s real estate agency Towngroup Photo: Mikhail Ognev/

“Then there’s transport accessibility,” she continued. — If you get an hour by train, take a bus to the nearest metro station, the project immediately “departs” in economy. Next we go to the house itself — the number of floors, the number of apartments per floor, the availability of wheelchair, bicycle, barrier-free environment. And the last thing is the layout, footage, ceiling height, window sizes.

— I think the future of the product is in services, and in all classes of housing, — says Bulat Mirzakhanov.It seems to me that solutions like a plot of land for a patio on the ground floor can absolutely rightly come to a variety of classes: it’s long past time to stop stigmatizing the first floor. In our projects in the Leningrad region, which, in my opinion, are a confident comfort class, there is housing with such solutions. In general, the industry does not seem to really want to be regulated at the legislative level, like the star rating of hotels — this will further prevent playing all these repositioning games. But as a product specialist, it would be easier for me to exist in an environment where the rules of the game are clearly defined. However, I do not believe that these rules will appear in the near future, primarily because the product is developing much faster than the legislative framework.

According to Veronika Lezhneva, the probability that in the near future we will see the creation of a common class matrix is very low.

— This will limit the developer’s ability to position the project in advertising materials. — She says. — But this is not so important, since in recent years the market as a whole has gone through a long evolutionary path. Current comfort class projects will clearly give a head start to complexes that 15 years ago were classified as a business — in terms of content, landscaping, and technological parameters. For example, GloraX is currently building two complexes in the comfort class in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region: GloraX Pargolovo and GloraX Housewarming – both projects with rich thoughtful landscaping, with elements of a “smart home”, that is, in fact, options from the business class. Thus, now we see a buyer’s market — and no matter how developers build marketing strategies and name complexes, in general, consumers still benefit.

Evgeny Beskrovny developed the theme of evolution. According to him, from the point of view of services, comfort plus is getting closer to the old standard of “business”, and that, in turn, is getting closer and closer to the “elite”.

— It is in the elite segment that we do not yet see any serious step forward, and I think the next turn will be for him: he will inevitably have to move forward, because otherwise the business class will simply displace him.

Dmitry Efremov believes that the class of housing will continue to transform: developers will adopt and adapt the characteristics of business apartments and above in comfort class projects.

— In general, this trend is relevant not only for the construction, but also for the industrial segment: for example, we observe a similar evolution in the automotive market, where cars are becoming more “advanced” every year, — he says. — Thus, we predict, on the one hand, the gradual transformation of economy class into “comfort”, on the other, the relocation of standard housing to the Leningrad region. In turn, “comfort” will also acquire the characteristic features of “business”. Since the comfort class is quite convenient in positioning, it is likely that in the future it will make up the main market share.