The development of the housing market in the Volga Federal District was discussed in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday, 23 March 2018.
The meeting of the Council chaired by Mikhail Babich brought together Mikhail Men, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation, Sergey Zaitsev, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Plutnik, Director-General of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending JSC, Igor Kustarin, Director of Regions Development Direction at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and the heads of the regions in the Volga Federal District.
The priority areas in the sphere of residential construction are defined by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 7 May 2012 No. 600 “On measures to provide citizens of the Russian Federation with affordable and comfortable housing and to improve the quality of housing and utility services”.
Under to the Decree, it is necessary to ensure a decrease in the indicator of exceeding the average of the mortgage interest rate in relation to the consumer price index, an increase in the mortgage residential loans and to create opportunities for Russian citizens to improve living conditions at least once every 15 years. The reduction in cost of one square metre of housing should be achieved through ramping-up the number of completed economy-class dwellings.
Up to 2020, affordable and comfortable housing should be provided to 60 percent of Russian families who want to advance their living conditions.
At year-end 2017, the Penza region ranked third in the Volga Federal District in terms of housing supply per person, fourth in terms of accessibility and second in terms of the total area of residential premises per person.
“It is important to understand that indicators are not an end in themselves. We care about our residents, so that the greatest number of them will be able to improve their living conditions. By the end of 2017, about 900 thousand square metres of housing will be commissioned in the Penza region. The figure is a bit higher than in 2016. At the same time, the volumes of mortgage lending were recovered at the pre-crisis level, they rose by more than 30%,” Ivan Belozertsev stated.
The growth rate of mortgage lending in the Penza region is higher than the average in Russia and in the Volga Federal District.
"We expect that while maintaining the pace of mortgage lending development in the Penza region, up to 10 thousand mortgage loans worth more than 15 billion roubles will be granted in 2018. 9519 loans were given in 2017,” the governor added.
In 2018, the Agency for Mortgage Lending of the Penza region LLC will provide mortgage loans with a preferential interest rate of 6% per annum according to the standards of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending JSC. The sub-programme “Stimulating the development of residential construction in the Penza region” provides 60 million roubles for implementing this strategy.
“Mortgage products help not only to buy housing, but also to revive the construction market, which freezes if demand decreases that has a negative impact on the entire industry,” the head of the region noted.
“The construction sector today definitely has some problems. Therefore, the Council of the RF President Plenipotentiary Representative to the Volga Federal District introduced this topic in order to find the best solutions, and then to submit proposals, if necessary, to the federal level,” Ivan Belozertsev summarised.
