VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Over the past eight years, over 217,000 young specialists and young families have benefited from our housing programmes. Many young professionals based in rural areas have been able to improve their families’ living conditions, with more than 14 million square metres of residential space being provided for their housing needs. An additional 2.5 million square metres will become available in 2011-2013. Moreover, I believe that we should allow farmers to build their houses on farmlands.”
“What we need is not abstract square metres, but the availability of quality residences for people and solutions to the housing problems of real Russian families. This should be the main, basic indicator of the efficiency and productivity of our efforts in this area. This is why we will continue to press with our plans to provide housing for veterans, service members, military retirees and other categories of the population for whom the state has direct obligations – I am referring to those living in the Far North, to forced migrants and Chernobyl victims.”
“Vnesheconombank could credit commercial banks so they fund projects for affordable economy-class housing. As we agreed before, this investment should amount to at least 50 billion roubles, and the funding source should be Vnesheconombank’s return on operations in financial markets. I’d like to remind you that the bank earned profits from Russian companies’ shares which it bought during the recession and which have gone up. It would be sound to invest these revenues in housing programmes. These monies will be provided at only 3%, which will allow banks to reduce interest rates for end borrowers, ordinary people.”
“Resolving housing problems is certainly one of our main priorities. This policy is aimed at providing new apartments or new houses to as many Russian families as possible. People should have a range of options for improving their housing depending on each family’s income and current circumstances. These options must include state support, mortgage or personal savings.”
“Due to massive public support, we have managed to maintain the status quo. During 2009-2010, we invested very serious money - more than one trillion roubles - in housing programmes to support mortgages and the construction industry as a whole. As a result, we have not only made serious progress in sorting out people's housing problems, we have maintained the potential for reconstruction and the development of construction and related industries. Housing construction is up in 37 regions of the Russian Federation. From January to June 2010, 21.6 million square metres of housing was commissioned. This is almost the same as in the first, pre-crisis months of 2008, and about 60 million square metres of housing is expected to be built in 2010.”
“I'd like to speak about the housing issue. This has been the main issue in this country for many, many years. As you know, we promised to resolve this problem for those veterans of the Great Patriotic War who registered before March 1, 2005. We have reached this goal. The Krasnodar Territory was the last region to report that it had carried out this objective. We received their report on May 1 of this year. I assume that there are still some problems, but let me repeat that all regions have officially reported on this issue. Of course, we will verify this, but it seems as if the problem has been resolved - 28,500 veterans have received flats.”
“We will also launch a fundamentally new federal targeted programme for the comprehensive modernisation of housing and public utilities, which will complement the efforts that the Housing Reform Promotion Fund started several years ago. Naturally, this programme will not just be about major housing repairs. Significant renovation of utilities networks is also necessary. Moreover, this renovation should not only be undertaken in emergencies and should involve modern technology, materials, energy-efficient equipment, private investment and concessions.”
“Such loans are exclusively designed for buying flats in new buildings. This is also a well-thought-out decision, because new flats are cheaper, and sometimes much cheaper, than secondary real estate market because in the past construction materials and everything else were more expensive than today. I hope this will allow us to support housing construction and encourage new construction projects.”
“We have together agreed that it is premature to reduce measures of support for the real economy this year. Support for housing construction is one of these measures. I believe that we should use government resources to encourage demand for inexpensive, affordable housing. Therefore, we will impose a ceiling on mortgage loans - three million roubles in the regions and eight million roubles in Moscow and St Petersburg, our metropolises.”
“Vnesheconombank (VEB) and the National Welfare Fund will grant commercial banks a total of 250 billion roubles to enable them to issue affordable loans. This is the long-term credit that we will use to resolve the housing problem.”
