“This is an ark”: who is building houses on water in Moscow and why

Alexander Klimchuk and Ekaterina Karsakova

Information note

A houseboat is a small river vessel designed to resemble a house. It consists of a floating base and a superstructure. The concept of “square meters on water” is quite common worldwide.

For example, more than 2,000 barges converted into floating houses are moored on the Seine River in Paris. French actor Pierre Richard lived on a houseboat for 12 years. Actress Kate Moss resides on the water. Depeche Mode set up their recording studio on a floating structure. However, in Russia, this type of housing remains a novelty. The visionaries behind this real estate niche are spouses Ekaterina Karsakova and Alexander Klimchuk, who founded the company Houseboat.ru in 2016.

Alexander Klimchuk has extensive entrepreneurial experience: launching car dealerships and service centers, producing light aircraft and helicopters (“Aerosoyuz”), and investing in skyscraper construction in the UAE. Ekaterina Karsakova also has a strong background, having sold cars since the age of 15, working at Mercury and later selling Bentley, Ferrari, and Maserati. She was a director at a Porsche dealership.

Over eight years, Klimchuk and Karsakova have built and sold nearly 50 houseboats.

In Russia, living on water is exotic, but in other countries, it’s commonplace. Where is it most popular?

The houseboat market in the U.S. is over a century old, with around a million such vessels. Lake Powell near Page, Arizona, alone has about 400 houseboats, mostly floating cottages made of aluminum, metal, and wood. Houseboats are also widespread in Amsterdam and Germany. We’ve traveled everywhere to study the market. In Europe, they are typically converted barges or floating utility modules. In Southeast Asia, water homes exist too, but they’re often makeshift structures. In Russia, houseboats are rare, but we aim to promote not just waterfront living but also high design and quality.

What inspired you to pursue this concept?

We loved living in the Mediterranean and wanted to buy a home or yacht there. Yachts were too expensive, with insane maintenance costs. Traditional homes didn’t work either—we didn’t want cramped spaces in isolated cottage communities with no infrastructure. Then we discovered houseboats—a hybrid of a yacht and a house. Initially, we planned to build our first houseboat in Denmark, but after crunching the numbers, we realized it was more cost-effective to start in Russia. We settled in Dolgoprudny, near Moscow, and things took off from there.

And things took off both literally and figuratively? You built your first houseboat—where did you go?

We built our first house and thought, “We’ll live here for a couple of weeks and see what we’ll end up selling.” This was in 2016. We only moved out in 2021 or 2022 when a client came and bought it from us. We still dream of a seafaring houseboat to sail to the Mediterranean, but the political situation in recent years hasn’t been conducive to that.

The logistical aspect is interesting. Where can you go right now?

Just a week ago, the houseboat we’re in now traveled from the Moscow suburbs to Moscow itself—partially over ice, partially through water. For about a month and a half, we lived near our workplace, the shipyard. It was so convenient to walk to work! Now we’ve moved the houseboat to the Rechnoy Vokzal area. The trip took just two hours.

Do you need to notify anyone when moving?

No. Navigation rules are like public roads: follow the regulations, and you’re good. No fees, no permits. The only exception is passing through locks—you request permission from the lock dispatcher. But even that’s straightforward. Motor yachts, jet skis, or houseboats—all follow the same rules.

Could you sail to Sochi now? If not the Mediterranean?

Right now, ice blocks the way. But in general, Moscow is the “city of five seas,” according to geography lessons, so you could reach the Baltic, Caspian, Azov, Black Sea, etc. It’d be an adventure, though: reaching the Black Sea would take three to four weeks. Last summer, three floating hotels sailed under their own power to Karelia. Recently, an electric houseboat headed to Nizhny Novgorod, and a two-story floating spa (350 square meters) set off for Kazan.

A spa? So houseboats aren’t just for living?

Houseboats are floating square meters that can serve residential or commercial purposes. More and more people are ordering floating hotels, offices, restaurants, spas, and so on. This way, your business occupies prime waterfront real estate—the most scenic and valuable spots. Land there is expensive, but water leases cost pennies. Or take remote areas like Karelia: building cabins on cliffs would be insanely costly and complex, requiring permits and infrastructure, especially in protected natural zones. Instead, you install floating piers anchored to the seabed, order 30 houseboats—and within a month, you have a floating village.

We call this concept “aquadevelopment” (a slang term)—building floating communities. Essentially, these are houseboat marinas with diverse purposes.

You mentioned the cost of water, a household question: what about the utilities?

The main costs for maintenance are related to the rent at the yacht club. Monthly docking fees range from 30,000 to 80,000 rubles, depending on the size of the houseboat. This includes electricity, car parking, water connection (if required), garbage disposal, security, and so on. Annual maintenance for a small houseboat costs 20,000–30,000 rubles, and for a larger one, 40,000–50,000 rubles. So, the maintenance costs are quite comparable to those of an apartment in a business-class building. Taxes are very simple: around 6,000 rubles per year for a small houseboat, and about 30,000 rubles for a larger one.

Can river water be used?

The houseboat we are currently on only consumes electricity from the shore; everything else it generates independently. It filters water from the river, which we drink and use for various purposes, then we purify it, and either recycle it or discharge clean water back into the river. Solid waste is pumped out every two to three years. Regarding electricity, we use solar panels and have various green technologies integrated, as the electrical capacity connection is limited. Therefore, we have to make the houseboats energy-efficient to minimize electricity consumption.

How do you achieve energy efficiency?

We don’t heat the street. The houseboat has a very warm shell, the windows are properly selected, and we have a supply-and-exhaust ventilation system with heat recovery. Even on the second floor, there is no underfloor heating.

In which segments, compared to real estate, do you operate?

We work in the economy, comfort, business, and premium classes. But these classes are, of course, conditional. Even in the economy class, the walls must be smooth, the shell must be warm, nothing should rattle, everything must be neat and made with good quality. Over time, we have built about 50 ships. And we chose the most complex niche—custom vessels. This is the toughest part of the business, as nothing is serial; everything is individual. Typically, the client doesn’t know what they want. And the most difficult part is when they change their mind during construction and say, “Let’s put a lift for the jet ski here, a garage for a submarine here, and a helicopter pad there.” Then we have to rush around, wide-eyed, and redo everything.

Do you succeed?

Yes, we succeed. Of course, we’ve made some mistakes and faced what’s called “consumer terrorism.” This happens when an unfinished houseboat is registered under fake documents, the client doesn’t pay an eight-figure sum, and then you end up fighting in court to prove they are wrong. And then they post nasty videos about you online to avoid returning the money. We found out that this kind of “terrorism” has long existed in real estate, but we only recently learned about it. But as they say, without the failure, you’re not a student, and without hardships, you’re not a soldier. So, without losses, there’s no entrepreneurship, probably.

Tell us about the pricing model?

On the “house – boat” scale, we are 90% house and 10% boat. Therefore, we’ve tried to align everything with the price per square meter of housing. Our price is somewhere between 300,000 and 450,000 rubles per square meter. According to CIAN and RBC, the average cost of housing in a standard new-build apartment in Moscow is around 400,000 rubles. But all of our houses are “business” class, though our prices align more with the economy or comfort class. From Monday to Friday, it might be an apartment, but on weekends, you’re 20–25 minutes outside the city—it’s a country house. Or, during vacations, you go for a walk on the Volga River—it’s a river yacht. Now, calculate how much all of this would cost separately: an apartment in Moscow, a house in the suburbs, and a yacht. So, the houseboat ends up being more economical.

Who were the first clients?

Our now-former neighbor. We were once featured on the TV program “Usadba” where we talked about living on the water, and her father saw the program and said, “Look at how these people live! You should do this.” She came with her husband. The family fell so in love with the idea that they immediately ordered a houseboat. They lived in it for three years. They bought it for 45 million rubles and sold it for 77 million. They even made a profit. Try making that kind of profit in real estate.

The couple spent a long time looking for an apartment, but nothing seemed right. Then they got frustrated and said, “Let’s go see what we would buy if we had unlimited money.” They found their dream apartment on Mosfilmovskaya for 130 million rubles, were stunned, and then ordered a 165-square-meter house from us for 45 million rubles.

Did other clients also come to you on their own? Or did you actively seek them out?

Most of our clients find us on their own. We even choose our neighbors (<em>laughs</em>). Sometimes people come in, talking through their teeth, not serious — it’s obvious they aren’t a good fit. Honestly, we try not to work with such clients.

Is there a trend towards a nomadic lifestyle, is that what you’re about?

That’s not us. On the contrary, we’re about stability. The kind where your socks are always in your closet in the right order, and they’re with you no matter where you are.

Are you planning to expand to foreign markets?

Foreigners are already coming to us to learn from our experience. And it’s damn nice when we’re not the ones looking enviously abroad, thinking everything’s better over there. When you tell the Dutch or Danes that our houseboats can move on ice (though not thick ice, 10–15 cm max), that we get drinking water from the river, and that all the engineering systems are under the ice, and that we adapt Western systems for our winters, their eyes practically pop out of their heads. One of the large Western companies even sent a delegation of about eight people from Germany to see what these Russians are doing. Well, yes, it’s nice to boost our egos a bit.

In one of your interviews, you mentioned that you localized production, meaning your houseboats are now almost entirely branded “Made in Russia.”

You don’t cross yourself until the thunder strikes. Due to the pandemic and the international situation, we’ve localized production by almost 85%. The only imported components are the engines, some control systems, and a few other things. We produce the houseboats in Dolgoprudny, a suburb of Moscow. In 2024, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, we signed an investment agreement with the Moscow region government about state support and our plans to invest in building a large new shipyard in the Moscow region.

What’s happening in the world right now? How are the trends developing there?

In Dubai, they’re building floating hotels. There’s a waterfront village with ultra-expensive houseboats starting at seven million dollars.

Houses on water are actually a global trend. Futurists keep warning that ocean levels are rising, some regions will flood, and hundreds of millions of climate refugees are expected in the coming decades. This isn’t just about luxury or cost-saving anymore—it’s about survival. If the Maldives sink, what’s left?

The Ark.

Exactly. Houseboats are essentially arks. You can move your home to a safer place, avoiding floods and climate disasters. That’s why it’s trending. Of course, it’s still niche—not everyone’s ready to live on water. Stereotypes hold strong, like the idea that you’re supposed to “plant a tree, raise a son, and buy an apartment in a concrete block.”

Exactly! I’m the same way.

These are societal expectations forced on us.

But come on, it’s natural! Like an animal, I want to hibernate in my den…

In a cage.

(Laughs.) Good comparison.

This is how most people live. They buy an apartment, and then it’s home, work, home, work, home, work, cemetery. And it’s good if, in between, you manage to experience something else. But this story — houseboats — is for those who want to break out of this closed loop. Those who, perhaps, are somewhat mindful of money, who love life on the move. Ultimately, those who might have a bit of rebellion or adventurous spirit in them.

And yet, the average person has this psychological setup: a house on the land.

Well, we’ve already been through all that. (Laughs.) We’ve had a house, a dacha, and an apartment — all of it. We lived outside the Moscow Ring Road, but no matter where you live, even in Rublyovka, there is no Moscow infrastructure. And in Moscow — there’s no nature. Now we have both.

Creative producer of the project Maria Makhonova

Photographer Maria Khavtorina