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An isolated hut in the mountains, built around a giant oven. The family took a pair of chopped-up lambs and some home-made vodka and spent the weekend hill walking and riding horses owned by the only residents (the few other houses were dachas as well; this wasn’t an abandoned village). They also used the communal sauna - even in such a tiny place the people had thought to help each other out. Water came from the mountain streams.

A piece of land in the city outskirts, like a large British allotment, with a garden shed and fruit trees. There was also a toilet and running water, but the water was not potable. This place was served by a bus route, so it was somewhere to go and pick fruit for the morning, or sit back and watch parachutists from the aero-club further along the road. The fruit, of course, could be sold immediately by the side of the road in the city, or else taken home.

A Scandinavian-style timber and glass lodge in a walled garden an hour outside the city. This dacha actually had three houses - one for the owners, and two less glamorous but perfectly modern ones for the country family they employed to look after the place. There was a large pond, a profitable orchard, two cows, seven goats and three hundred chickens, not to mention a clean, modern sauna with all the trimmings. The side of the main house was all glass, there were enough communications to run the family businesses, the kitchen was Western, and the water and toilet facilities were not only plumbed-in but available on demand.

I wrote that the line between dacha and village house was a fine one, although the dachas I have described would be pretty unusual in a village. The reason is that the land is entirely what you choose to make it. There is no reason why you couldn’t live in Western-style opulence, or Oriental-style opulence for that matter, in the glass-sided lodge; just as you could be attracted to surviving on natural water and wild boar in the mountains. The “allotment” is the most interesting case, because it is on land which has been divided into plots. Some of the plots already host full-time residences, some just summer houses and some nothing but a shed. The main limit is water, as to have potable water connected and have it run all winter is quite expensive. Still, it clearly can be done, as it was to the more remote lodge. 

In spite of the recent police raids on unauthorised super-dachas in the Moscow area, as long as you are reasonably unobtrusive you can build and do what you like. You buy the land, and it is yours. Making yourself more comfortable is then merely a matter of what you can buy or arrange.
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The engine of the housing market (in fact, of most markets) in Stavropol is the free ads paper, “Everything For You”. An advertisement looks something like this:
 

This is the most difficult part. The agencies are numerous, amateurish and unscrupulous - much like everywhere, you might say, but here all three of those words are completely true. To sell a house, you put an ad in the paper. The agencies then call you and substitute your ad, on the basis that they take a fee from you if they sell your house. All they need to operate is a licence (probably), a phone and someone who can write legal contracts. There are no walk-in offices with pictures in the windows; you just let them know what you want and they’ll call you. When you view a house they may pressurise you to sign a contract, but keep your jets cool because you then have a week to come up with the money and take the keys. If you’re simultaneously selling your own house, the timing could play out of your hands.

Money - The cost of the house aside, you need to pay the agency twice. Once is the seller’s fee, which should come out of the asking price but may not; and either way it is ultimately your money which will end up in the agency’s hands. This is 2% of the price, roughly, but ask. The buyer also needs to pay the legal fees, which come to about £40. There are no taxes.

Unless you normally carry your money around in a suitcase, you need to be aware that this is virtually a cash society. “Credit cards” generally means Visa Electron cash cards, although if you have a real one you can use it in big shops and ATMs. To get a lot of money cheaply into Russia, it is helpful to set up a dollar or Euro account. This is easy, although bureaucratically frustrating purely because of the pedantry of the paperwork. Even if you can’t write in Russian before you arrive at the bank, you certainly will by the time you leave. You then just transfer the money from overseas via the SWIFT system. To withdraw the cash you pay a 1% charge, but interbank transfers are free, so both buyer and seller should go to the bank and just move the money from one passbook to the other.

Mortgages do exist, but they are not the same. Fundamentally, they are just loans, and the interest rate ranges from 10-18%. Repayment terms are 10 years or less. This all means that monthly payments are high. However, they do not vary with interest rates, and inflation means that your repayments will probably be relative peanuts after a few years. An example: a woman borrowed 250,000 roubles to buy a 450,000 rouble flat two years ago. Her monthly repayments are now 5000 roubles, which is about half her pay. Over the next eight years the payments will gradually fall to 1000 roubles, which by then will, assuming inflation of 10% and a corresponding rise in wages, will be much smaller burden. This explanation isn’t good economics in any way, but it does illustrate the basics. Incidentally, the flat is now worth 670,000 roubles. 
You could also rent your flat out. There are few rules, so agree the length of the contract with the tenants before they move in. The rent is between £100 and £140 a month.

If you do come, import taxes apply and are varied in both size and application.  They are based on the principle that if it appears to be for sale, it is taxed, and if seems to be for domestic use it passes free of charge. Coming via a Moscow airport, you don’t have to worry unless you’re carrying something very unusual. 

Entry - As a foreigner, you have two realistic visa options for entering the country. One is as a tourist, whereby you have an agency or friend invite you and you stay for three months. The other is to work here, under the sponsorship of a local business, and you can stay for a year, coming and going as you please and renewing as soon as you like. Your or your sponsor’s relationship with the local OVIR (visa department) counts for as much as the rules when renewing, so ideally get sponsored by someone who gives them cognac at Christmas- the wheels of officialdom here often need a little grease. You also need then to stamp your entry card within three days of arrival, and I mean you really do need, as one of the main activities of the police is checking these documents at random. As for the Western end of the visa process, you can either queue up with your sponsor’s invitation at the Russian embassy for hours in the faint hope that they serve you and everything is in order, or you can pay an agency to do it. Frankly, the agency is massively easier and not too expensive if the visa isn’t urgent.

Security - A lot of people worry about security in Russia. By and large, Stavropol is safe. The streets are full of people at night, and even alcoholics are generally completely civil. One recently returned my house key, which my girlfriend had left in the door, rather than steal our home contents (he asked that we pay him £2 for some beer). Still, make sure that there are bars on ground floor windows. If you build a large country complex, hire a guard. They cost about £105 a month, including taxes. If you live in a village, bear in mind that in the winter many locals have nothing to do but drink, and so may misjudge the line between borrowing and theft. 
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