December 25, 2019, 00:52 / Economics

How much does it cost to complete housing for all defrauded shareholders in Russia?

We need 500 billion rubles for three years, the Bela Lyauv Fund for the Protection of Shareholders has calculated.

On average, each defrauded apartment buyer suffered 2.5 million rubles in damage, according to calculations by the Fund for the Protection of Shareholders / Evgeniy Egorov / Vedomosti

In Russia there are now about 200,000 defrauded shareholders, said Oleg Govorun, general director of the Fund for the Protection of Shareholders, at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “More than 3,000 houses are abandoned, unfinished,” he continued. “In fact, this is a millionth city in our country that is not completed.” But within three years, i.e. until 2023, Govorun promises to completely solve the problem.

The transcript of the conversation published on the government website does not answer the question of how much this might cost. Govorun told Vedomosti that for the construction of housing for all defrauded shareholders, “an additional 0.5 trillion rubles must be allocated.” “This will allow us to fulfill the instructions of [Russian] President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and solve the accumulated problem of defrauded shareholders by 2023,” Govorun promises.

The figure is 0.5 trillion rubles. was named at the meeting on December 24, Medvedev’s press secretary Oleg Osipov confirmed to Vedomosti. He did not say how the Prime Minister reacted to Govorun's proposal.

Who does the fund protect?

The Shareholders' Protection Fund began operating in October 2017 and was conceived as an alternative to developers' liability insurance. Builders must transfer 1.2% of the cost of each equity participation agreement to the fund. 40 billion rubles have already been collected from them. This and next year the budget will allocate 32.5 billion rubles. This year the fund received about 10 billion rubles from the regions. Next year, the fund plans to receive 5 billion rubles from the regions. and from builders - 10 billion rubles. Thus, the fund will have almost 100 billion rubles. To completely solve the problems of all shareholders, approximately another 400 billion rubles are needed, or 135 billion rubles each. in year.

To control all construction projects, there is a unified information system for housing construction - nash.dom.rf. Since 2018, all developers are required to disclose on this portal information about their activities and projects that involve attracting funds from shareholders. The system provides a complete picture of the entire market: the number of developers, stages of house construction, statistics on transfers to escrow accounts.

The Fund for the Protection of Shareholders also monitors the compliance of developers with the requirements of the law on shared-equity construction. If violations are detected, they may be deprived of the opportunity to sell housing during the construction stage (they are entered into the Unified Register of Problem Properties). Today there are about 3,100 houses. About 2,000 houses are at various stages of bankruptcy. The remaining part was delayed from delivery for six months or more.

Together with the regions

The fund works together with the regions to protect the rights of shareholders. It is the subject of the Federation who indicates a specific house to the fund and co-finances the solution to the problem of shareholders. And Moscow, for example, is completing everything at its own expense.

At the same time, the foundation does not always complete abandoned houses. Sometimes he pays compensation to buyers based on the market valuation of the purchased apartments. To date, the fund has decided to restore the rights of 7,900 shareholders, which will require 13.9 billion rubles. Of these, about 3,400 people will receive apartments (completion will cost 6.75 billion rubles), the rest will receive money. The average amount of monetary compensation is 20% more than the initial investments of shareholders, says Govorun: “Very often people do not believe that they are being returned that kind of money.”

Decisions on whether to complete construction or pay compensation are made on the basis of expert opinion. Experts, according to Govorun, are attracted to the competition. And the final decision is made by the fund's supervisory board. Its chairman is Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the Government Konstantin Chuychenko.

Will there be money?

In recent years, the problem of defrauded shareholders has become a particularly discussed issue, and its solution is aimed at relieving social tension, says Nikolai Alekseenko, general director of the Construction Complex Rating Agency. Now is just the time when you can ask for money for shareholders, says Alexandra Suslina, head of the “Fiscal Policy” department of the Economic Expert Group. According to her, by the end of this year, enough money will have accumulated in the national welfare fund to start spending it. “From this point of view, the completion of houses is the very infrastructure where it makes sense to invest, and that rare case when you need to start a project not from scratch,” says Suslina. True, those asking are rarely given the full amount they ask for, she points out.

500 billion rubles. - a very large amount to solve the problems of shareholders, says Oleg Shibanov, director of the Skolkovo-NES financial center. Expenses of 135 billion rubles. per year are comparable to budget expenditures budgeted for 2020–2022. for all culture and cinematography, fire safety, and almost twice the amount allocated for physical education and sports.

However, the budget has resources - for 2020–2022. its surplus should be more than 1.5 trillion rubles, Shibanov continues. But it will be possible to allocate money under the auspices of supporting demand, increasing the area of residential buildings and, in general, the national project “Housing and an accessible urban environment.” Moreover, the government can redistribute money for national projects even without amendments to the budget, Shibanov points out.