In four years, every fourth family will be able to afford a comfortable flat in Russia.
To make that dream a reality, the government will have to reduce market prices and attract more investment to the construction industry. It will also have to seriously increase the scale of housing brought into use every year. By 2020, the construction industry must build no less than one square metre per capita. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave the builders these instructions yesterday.
The construction and mortgage markets were among the first victims of the crisis. There was little left to pay for the construction and purchase of new housing. During the past year alone, the scale of commissioned housing decreased by about six percent. Now, the economy is gradually recovering. According to the latest information from the Ministry of Regional Development, the scale of construction is approaching the pre-crisis level. Needless to say, much credit for this goes to the government.
"We see that the number of new construction sites is growing and the groundwork for putting more housing into service in 2011-2012 is being laid, although I wish the scale of construction were bigger," Putin said yesterday. "By 2016, we must build about 100 million square metres per year, and by 2020, 142 million square meters."
The prime minister mentioned the Moscow Region as an example to follow, and not only in the quantity of commissioned housing (for more than four years, the region's construction companies have been building even more than one square metre per capita), but also the quality of housing. Putin inspected the Rodniki residential area in Podolsk and praised the local developers for not only building comfortable flats but also thinking about other facilities. The area has a school for a thousand students, a kindergarten for 350 children, underground parking, a sports centre, an outpatient clinic, and a shopping mall.
Putin reassured the builders that they will be awarded contracts from the government that has pledged to complete its programmes on the provision of housing for war veterans, army servicemen, retired servicemen, and other beneficiaries.
"Next year, we'll spend about 250 billion roubles from the federal budget for these purposes," Putin said and added instantly: "But the government cannot remain the main buyer of housing. Otherwise, we risk getting a distorted and monopolized market and suppressing the mortgage system and other modern instruments of resolving housing problems."
To prevent the pre-crisis situation, in which the demand exceeded the supply and prices were taken off the mark, the government will have to figure out in advance what may happen in the future.
The prime minister is convinced that in the first place, it is necessary to destroy the notorious administrative barriers, such as complicated urban planning documentation. It is also essential to speed up the allocation of land for construction. This applies to all categories of land – federal, regional and municipal. Second, it is necessary to review design specifications and estimates in order to make price formation in construction as transparent as possible.
Third, special attention must be paid to economy housing, but this does not mean that flats should look like drab concrete boxes.
"Our goal is to allow at least 25% of Russian families to afford flats by investing their maternity capital, their savings, and taking a low-interest mortgage without any risk of facing leaps in prices, housing pyramid schemes, or dishonest developers," Putin concluded.
By Anastasia Savinykh