So be it: Putin praised the construction complex, but warned about the risks

In Russia, it is necessary to restore order in the field of family mortgages: banks impose additional fees on preferential loans from 5 to 10%. Vladimir Putin said this on April 15 at a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council dedicated to the development of infrastructure for life. The President expressed concern that the housing construction sector risks slowing down, as developers are already facing declining demand. The Cabinet of Ministers confirmed the problem, as the population has reduced the opportunity to improve housing conditions due to high key, inaccessible market mortgages and restrictions on participation in preferential programs. Other hot topics of the State Council meeting include the modernization of housing and communal services, which will cost at least 4.5 trillion rubles to upgrade its systems by 2030, as well as emergency housing. How many families are preparing to move into new apartments and what the head of the Central Bank thinks about mortgages in the Russian Federation is in the Izvestia article.

Mortgage programs in the Russian Federation — how they are planned to be developed

Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council on April 15. The focus is on the implementation of the national project "Infrastructure for Life". Together with the Cabinet of Ministers and the heads of regions, the president discussed all aspects of housing problems for more than two hours: from social services and housing to a safe environment and road repairs.

In general, the construction complex in Russia has been developing dynamically in recent years and is capable of solving even "the most ambitious tasks," the president believes. In particular, we are talking about plans to rent 1,383 million square meters of housing by 2036. Of these, 663 million square meters will be built by 2030. However, against the background of the current situation, the president stated the risks of deceleration: more than 2 thousand housing construction projects are already being implemented with a six-month delay.

— Developers are facing a decrease in demand. It, in turn, falls due to the expensive cost of credit, as is well known. Mortgage lending, which has recently reached record levels, is shrinking. In addition, not all citizens and families who are eligible for preferential mortgage loans decide to take them. Banks charge them additional fees from 5 to 10%. It is necessary to restore order here, of course. Moreover, the government allocates financial resources to banks to issue such loans," the head of state said.

Some developers have mounting debts, which threatens the sustainability of their business, even to the point of exiting the market. And this will lead to a reduction in employment in the industry and may negatively affect the entire economy: the Central Bank and the Cabinet of Ministers need to take "appropriate measures to the situation," the president instructed. Now developers, despite high market rates, receive loans at 10%, said the head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina at a meeting. At the same time, large Russian banks still charge a commission from developers, who, in turn, transfer these costs to the cost of housing.

— We are, in principle, against these commissions, we prescribed a ban on some of the commissions in the mortgage standard, we are also concerned about this. And after the Ministry of Finance increased the margin, these commissions decreased slightly, but the commission rate for large banks remains 5-6%. But there are a number of banks that operate without commission. And of course, the commissions themselves (...) they are transferred by developers to the cost of housing. This is very bad. Therefore, we believe that these commissions can be banned under preferential programs," Elvira Nabiullina said.

In order to maintain the pace of housing construction, according to Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, a stable mortgage policy is needed today until 2030. The Deputy Prime Minister noted that given the high key interest rate, inaccessible market mortgages and restrictions on participation in preferential programs, the population's ability to improve housing conditions has really decreased. As a way to solve the problem, Marat Khusnullin suggested working on installments.

— Currently, developers are using the installment payment mechanism provided for by law, which is applied before the house is put into operation. It is proposed to work out the provision of installments when buying ready-made housing from developers and after putting the facility into operation, if they have fully paid off with banks, closed escrow accounts, and do not owe anyone anything. To do this, you just need to provide for the possibility of establishing collateral for such property," he suggested.

The head of Tatarstan, Chairman of the State Council's commission on Infrastructure for Life, Rustam Minnikhanov, also expressed his ideas to the president. He proposed extending family mortgages to couples with children under the age of 14 and families of military veterans. Currently, a "Family mortgage" of up to 6% per annum is available to Russians with children under the age of six, as well as families raising a minor child with a disability.

Today, only 30-40% of families have the opportunity to use the mortgage form of housing improvement, and another 2-3% solve this problem through social housing rental programs and long-term waiting lists for improved conditions. And for almost 60% of families, there are no government tools for solving housing issues — only commercial hiring, said Sergey Rybalchenko, head of the Public Chamber's Commission on Demography, protection of family, children and traditional family values.

— The president's demands are absolutely fair. Family mortgages are becoming less affordable. And it's not just that banks are striving to get higher incomes. The availability of mortgage programs is strongly influenced by the high interest rate of the Central Bank. Loans are not available for most families with children who do not qualify for a family mortgage. And those who use it are actually forced to take out an additional loan or several loans, already at draconian interest rates, since the increased limits are set only for federal cities," he told Izvestia.

In the meantime, it is worthwhile to increase the segment of individual housing construction, as it is in great demand among Russians, Vladimir Putin noted. Last year, the volume of residential housing amounted to 62.3 million square meters, which is about 58% of the total housing input in the country. Marat Khusnullin believes that residential housing should be included in a separate program within the framework of the federal Housing project to accelerate development.

When will the housing and communal services systems be updated

The meeting also discussed plans for the relocation of citizens from emergency housing: 345 thousand people are expected to move into new apartments by 2030, and at least 6.2 million square meters will be eliminated. m unsuitable buildings. But at the same time, the volume of the emergency fund may grow at a higher rate than before — about 2.2 million square meters. m annually. In particular, because the resource of houses built in mass batches during the Soviet era is being exhausted, the president explained. In general, over the past six years, more than 600 billion rubles have been spent from the federal budget alone on the modernization and development of housing and communal services. At least 4.5 trillion more, both budgetary and private investments, will be needed to upgrade the systems by 2030.

— It is also important to develop clearer standards for the maintenance and repair of apartment buildings. There are more than 950 thousand of them in our country. And the residents of each of them should understand how the payment for housing services is formed, and, of course, how and where these funds are spent, including fees for major repairs. Management companies are responsible for these areas. Much has already been done to improve the quality and transparency of their work, and licensing requirements are being tightened. But we must continue to pay attention to these issues, because such companies are directly responsible to citizens, and they actually exist at their expense," the president stressed.

In the meantime, there is a single list of mandatory works in the housing and communal services system, which all management companies must adhere to. At the same time, if certain standards are introduced, then it will be necessary to reform the market of management companies that would specialize in certain services, an expert from the Popular Front project told Izvestia. Analytics" Pavel Sklyanchuk.

— Almost 75% of our population lives in an urban environment, so, of course, housing and communal services are a priority. And today there is no doubt that housing and communal services should be co-financed from the federal center. Federal money helps a lot in the accelerated replacement of networks due to accumulated wear and tear. For many years, there was an under—repair, it accumulated, as a result, many utility networks went out of service," he said.

According to him, this affects not only the accident rate, but also the fact that we often, without realizing it, overpay for utility resources due to the fact that energy efficiency is low and losses are high.

Maintenance and modernization of the housing and communal services infrastructure today are of direct importance for the socio-economic development of any region, city or village, said Natalia Poluyanova, a member of the State Duma Committee on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. "If the housing and communal services do not meet modern standards, then the most qualified population leaves such a city, and no investment can achieve an increase in labor productivity there, which means taxes will start to fall and the future prospects of this settlement are sad," she explained to Izvestia.

Specific projects were also discussed at the meeting of the State Council. For example, the head of state was told about the development of Dobrograd, a city created from scratch in the Vladimir region with private investment and active government support. People move here not only from other regions of Russia, but also from abroad. Maxim Zhitnikov, a German citizen, became one of them. He told the president about his plans for life here, and then suddenly addressed Vladimir Putin in German, which the president knows very well. For a couple of minutes, the head of state spoke in German with his interlocutor over the videoconference, which clearly defused the slightly tense situation due to the difficult topic of the meeting. In his native language, a German resident who moved to Russia for permanent residence mentioned the difficulties with documents and asked for help with obtaining citizenship. "We will stay in contact and solve the problem," Putin replied.