I want a house in the Urals: choosing an ideal place to live in Russia

The idea of ​​moving to the Urals in a private house, at first glance, looks more like an adventure. But upon closer examination, it turns out that the region has its advantages, including the incredible beauty of nature and a calm, measured lifestyle.

The Urals District includes the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk Regions, the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs. The center of the region is the million-plus city Yekaterinburg.

Taiga, forest and mountains

The Ural Mountains, stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Kazakh steppes, are conditionally divide the continent into Europe and Asia. They also shape the climate and natural conditions of the Ural Federal District.

The Northern Urals is a zone of dense taiga forests, where pines, spruces and firs grow in abundance, and blueberries are abundant in wetlands. In the center, more gentle rocky ridges coexist with picturesque river valleys, creating breathtaking views. But the winds coming from the Atlantic make the weather capricious and unpredictable. In the south, the peaks become higher, and the landscape is more diverse due to rolling plains, lowlands, alpine meadows and picturesque lakes.

In the Ural Federal District, more than 60% of the territories are covered with forests, coniferous in the north, mixed in the center and south.
There are many nature reserves and national parks (the most famous are Taganay and Zyuratkul), which have special trails for tourists. The climate in the region is continental with long frosty winters and warm summers. However, there is enough heat and sun to grow your own vegetables and even some fruits in the Urals.

Ecology

The land of the Urals is rich in natural resources. This made the region a powerful industrial center, which could not but affect the cleanliness of the environment. According to Dmitry Khomyakov, the environmental situation in the Ural Federal District needs constant control and monitoring.

– said the expert.

The main problems are solved within the framework of the national project “Ecology”. According to the reports of local authorities, last year the district managed to achieve all planned indicators. In 2022, the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions are preparing to reduce harmful emissions from industrial enterprises as part of the Clean Air project. The plans include cleaning up polluted water bodies and destroying landfills. In Yamal, 2022 is generally declared the year of ecology.

In the rating of the public organization “Green Patrol”, compiled after each season, according to the results of the winter of 2021-22, the Tyumen region has the best results. It is in 24th place, and, judging by the dynamics, the authorities and activists of the region are moving in the right direction. Back in 2018, a unique forest park belt was created around the regional center to make it easier to breathe in the city. The trees were going to be carefully looked after, and the green zone itself was to be doubled.

The quality of life

According to RIA Rating, in 2021 the quality of life in most regions of the Ural Federal District has increased. The leaders are the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which took the eighth position. The Sverdlovsk region was in the top 20, which improved its position by two points. The Tyumen region became the 16th, the Chelyabinsk region – the 25th.

The Kurgan region, which has always been considered a depressed region, ranked 77th. But there, too, things are gradually getting better. In April 2021, it became known that the region began to “revive” production, which until recently were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Dmitry Khomyakov notes.

Work and income

According to Rosstat, for the first half of 2021, the average monthly salary in the Ural Federal District amounted to 58,578 rubles. Over the year it has grown by about 7%. Residents of Yamal receive the most – 119,830 rubles, as well as the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – 84,482 rubles. The lowest incomes were noted in the Kurgan region – 34,557 rubles.

Large earnings are provided by oil and gas. Thus, more black gold is mined in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug than anywhere else in Russia. And although they earn good money in companies, the working conditions are quite difficult. At the same time, both oil-bearing districts note the high cost of goods and services, including utility costs, as well as expensive products. The highest level of consumer spending was noted in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug – 42,594 rubles against 17,610 rubles in the Kurgan region.

There is enough work in the Urals.
Rosstat noted that at the end of June 2021, the number of vacancies exceeded the number of registered unemployed in almost all regions of the Ural Federal District.
The only exception was the Kurgan region. The unemployment rate is highest there.

Products

According to Dmitry Khomyakov, The agro-industrial complex of the Ural Federal District mainly specializes in the production of grain, vegetables, fodder crops, animal husbandry and poultry farming.

says the expert.

Back in the tenth yearsYumen and Chelyabinsk regions declared full self-sufficiency in products. So, in 2014, many poultry and pig farms appeared in the Southern Urals. Last year, the Tyumen region, despite the hot summer, became the leader in grain production in the Ural Federal District. Their products, the same poultry, meat and milk, are also in abundance there. The excess is sold to the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions, delivered to the oil districts. But they also live there not only with oil – they get fish, which they dry, dry, make canned food, breed cows, pigs and deer. Cheeses are brewed and wild plants suitable for food are cultivated.

Roads and communication

The main federal highway connecting the center of Russia and the Urals stretches for more than 2,000 km. It leads from Moscow through Ryazan, Samara, Penza and Ufa to Chelyabinsk. Not so long ago it began to be reconstructed. At the same time, a new high-speed road is being built, which will run from the capital through Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan to Yekaterinburg. The highway is expected to be commissioned by 2024.

As for the quality of local roads, Rosstat last assessed them in 2019. Then in
top 5 best regions The Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug took an honorable second place, only Moscow was ahead of it. Roads in the Tyumen region and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug were recognized as normative by 60-70%.

Airplanes are the fastest way to get from regional centers to the capital and other cities in the center of Russia. The air traffic center is Yekaterinburg with the Koltsovo airport. From here you can go not only to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk and Sochi, but also to Yerevan, Dubai, Antalya, Nur-Sultan and others. There are airfields in Kurgan, Magnitogorsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut and Tyumen. The journey by train to Moscow from the major cities of the district takes more than a day.

Internet and communication

The most “digital” region of the Urals is Yugra, where the population is provided with Internet and communications by 99.95%.
Moreover, the Internet is mostly high-speed – up to 100 Mbps. In past years, residents of the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs were among the top 3 most active users of the network, along with the inhabitants of Chukotka.

As elsewhere in Russia, in the Urals Federal District there is a good signal and a large selection of providers in large settlements.
Where there are no people and industrial enterprises, the signal may be lost. In 2020, local authorities stated that in the Urals, only 90% of federal highways and about 60% of regional ones are covered by cellular communications. Even in rich oil regions, there were areas where it was impossible to get through anywhere.

In order not to be left on the road without a connection, it makes sense to connect to federal mobile operator, which has full coverage throughout Russia. Such, for example, is Yota. The company provides not only communication services, but also routers and modems with unlimited 4G Internet for apartments, country houses and offices. You can connect several devices at once, say, a smartphone and a tablet, and use them at the same time. A convenient mobile application and a personal account on the website allow you to control expenses.

Yota allows its customers to choose the number of minutes and gigabytes themselves thanks to the tariff-designer. There can be many options – from 0 to 2000 minutes and from 1 to 50 GB. It is also possible to connect unlimited access to instant messengers, audio and video services, social networks, as well as a package of unlimited SMS messages.

Construction of houses

As Dmitry Khomyakov noted, in the Ural Federal District housing construction is quite active. The Okrug is generally the leader in Russia in terms of the resettlement of dilapidated housing, with the Chelyabinsk Region at the forefront here. A fabulous 3.15 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes, and the planned figures were exceeded by more than 30%.

As for the construction of private houses, the Urals are ahead of many here. The share of individual construction in the total volume of commissioned housing averages 59%, according to estimates last fall. So, in the Sverdlovsk region of 1.8 million square meters. about a million meters fell on private houses. There is plenty to build from. In terms of forest cover, the Urals are second only to Siberia and the Far East, says Dmitry Khomyakov. Potentially, it is possible to harvest up to 50 million cubic meters of timber per year.

the expert said.

In the Sverdlovsk region to build a house of profiled timber for 200 square meters. meters costs 3.7 million rubles, a Scandinavian-style house with an area of ​​​​about 200 square meters. meters will cost 4.8 million. In the Tyumen region, for the construction of a one-story house, almost 120 square meters. meters ask for almost 2.3 million rubles, and for a very spacious almost 300 “squares” – 4.3 million rubles.

Preferential mortgage programs for residents of the Urals are the same as for residents of the rest of Russia. Yes, by
Family Mortgage program parents of children who were born in 2018 and later can take out a loan at 6% per annum, but not more than 6 million rubles. The loan can also be used to build a private house.

Under the Rural Mortgage Program you can borrow no more than 3 million rubles at 2% per annum to purchase housing in rural areas – in settlements where no more than 30,000 people live.