Translated material
Expensive and angry
Mortgages in the Far East have been ordered to live long
Yesterday, while the government at its meeting appointed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev responsible for the implementation of the federal target program "Children of Russia", as part of his tour of the Far East, he held a meeting in Khabarovsk on providing Russians with affordable housing.Mr. Medvedev specifically chose the Far East, where housing is most uncomfortable and inaccessible, to hold a meeting on the national project “Affordable and Comfortable Housing.” This huge region accounts for just 2.6% of total refinanced mortgages. According to the mortgage scheme, only two high-rise buildings have been built in Khabarovsk with a population of 600,000. However, it was with an excursion to this outlandish mortgage facility for Khabarovsk - a youth housing complex - that Dmitry Medvedev began yesterday.
In the courtyard of one of the panel new buildings, a schematic plan of the first town in the Khabarovsk Territory, built on mortgage terms, was already waiting for the distinguished capital guest. The head of the FSUE Dalspetsstroy, General Yuri Khrizman (it was this company that carried out the construction of the complex) reported to Dmitry Medvedev about the successful delivery of more than 1,600 apartments in two years - military builders assemble one house in 2.5 months. The cost of one square meter is 18.5 thousand rubles. Mr. Medvedev was very interested in the conditions for issuing a bank loan for the purchase of an apartment in installments. The curiosity of the first deputy prime minister was satisfied by the Khabarovsk governor Viktor Ishaev, who said that at first “the banks were outrageous, charging too high a percentage, but after a serious conversation, the heads of local financial institutions reduced the rate from 18-20% to 13-14% per annum.”
Dmitry Medvedev was slightly puzzled, but immediately suggested that Mr. Ishaev “remind Far Eastern bankers that the interest rate on a mortgage loan should not be more than 11.5.” Moreover, as Mr. Medvedev noted at a meeting with the heads of the Far Eastern regions, which took place a little later in the building of the office of the Far Eastern presidential envoy, by 2009 the rate should be reduced to 9%, and possibly even lower. Since in world practice, the optimal rate for a mortgage loan, according to the First Deputy Prime Minister, is considered to be 7-8% per annum.
The First Deputy Prime Minister called on regional authorities to do everything possible to solve the housing problem, reminding them that two-thirds of Russians would like to improve their living conditions. He believes that by 2010, about 30% of Russians will be able to buy new apartments, if the mortgage lending system can be developed. At the same time, Mr. Medvedev especially emphasized that in Russia “it is necessary to develop mortgage lending not in Moscow, but in the regions.”
However, developing mortgages in the regions is not easy. Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Kamil Iskhakov said yesterday that last year only 672 mortgage loans were issued for the construction of new apartments in the region. The reason, according to the plenipotentiary, is the high growth rate of housing costs with extremely low incomes of the majority of the population. Building housing in the Far East is much more expensive than in the European part of Russia. The temperature difference between winter and summer in some areas of the region reaches 104 degrees. High humidity and seismic activity make the construction market of the Far East the least promising in the country. The unresolved housing issue, in turn, leads to a massive outflow of population from the Far East.
Mr. Medvedev objected to this that the problem with housing in the Far East is the result of insufficient activity of the regional authorities. As an example, he cited the extreme monopolization of the construction market in the Far East. The lion's share of construction orders is carried out by one or two “pocket” companies. Mr. Medvedev instructed Far Eastern governors to increase the number of companies allowed to build housing. “These should be proven companies, not fly-by-night companies, but at the same time, the construction market should not resemble a get-together,” the First Deputy Prime Minister concluded.