Translated material
Living spirit of liberalism
Russians are against the introduction of a ban on the purchase of a second or third apartment
The task formulated not so long ago by the Russian authorities, right up to the president, to bring real estate taxation into a market framework has grown into several parallel existing concepts: levy a tax based on the market value of housing, from the income of its owners, or introduce an increased tax only for the owners of several apartments. So far, none of these concepts have received unconditional support in society , and the prospect of introducing a new tax today is one of the most controversial innovations of the government. According to the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), Russians mostly support the idea of reforming housing taxation. Muscovites, oddly enough, are much less afraid than villagers that the price of housing will be taken as the basis for calculating the amount of tax.According to VTsIOM, the majority of Russians (68%) consider it unfair that the property tax does not depend on the quality and market value of housing. 13% of respondents believe that this is fair. Moreover, there are fewer of them in the group of low-income respondents and significantly more in the group of financially prosperous citizens.
The proposal to calculate residential property tax taking into account the market price of housing is perceived positively by 47% of respondents. Those who evaluate this proposal negatively are slightly smaller - 37%. The share of supporters of such a new tax is highest among residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg - 66%. In the provinces, residents turned out to be more conservative, and no more than a third of citizens perceive the new version of tax calculation positively. Moreover, the smaller the settlement, the fewer supporters of the new tax. In villages, for example, there are almost twice as many opponents of the new method of calculating tax on housing prices as in Moscow (22 and 12%, respectively). This is surprising because residents of the capital, where housing prices have reached sky-high heights, would seem, on the contrary, to be more wary of the introduction of a tax based on the market price of housing.
When asked what should be the basis for calculating property taxes, the largest number of respondents - 35% - answered that the level of income of its owners should be taken as a basis. Less significant to public opinion in determining the tax rate are factors such as the total footage of an apartment or house (10%), the book value of the apartment, the costs of its construction (10%) and the location of the housing (6%).
The idea of calculating this tax depending on the income level of the owners is least popular in the group of financially secure respondents, where it is supported by 27% of respondents, while in the groups of average and poor income it is naturally much more popular - 35-38%.
Among the measures that can limit speculation in the real estate market, the most effective for Russians seems to be the introduction of an increased tax on the second or third apartment, and the percentage of supporters of this measure has increased over the year (from 28 to 36%). There are many who believe that the authorities should not do anything because this is a normal market process (18%) or it is useless (13%).
The good news is that the expropriatory sentiments of society towards people who own several apartments at the same time are gradually declining. The share of supporters of criminal punishment for housing speculation decreased from 21 to 14%. Today, only 9% of respondents are in favor of radical measures of state regulation of the housing market, that is, in favor of a ban on the purchase of a second or third apartment, while a year ago such citizens were 12%.