Minister Irek Faizullin attends the meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation

The meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation on the implementation of the Presidential Decree no. 600 on measures to provide citizens with affordable housing and improvement of the quality of housing services, as well as the development of the housing sector and the problems of providing quality and affordable public services to citizens, was held yesterday. The meeting was attended by Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the Republic of Tatarstan I.E.Faizullin. In his opening speech Head of the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia Igor Slyunyaev stressed that starting with this meeting the Board of the Ministry would consider the issues of the implementation of the May decrees of the President of the Russian Federation in 2012, and the last year's Message of the President of the Russian Federation, in federal districts. This time the Board paid attention to the Central Federal District. The head of the Ministry of Regions of Russia noted that in many ways the construction industry, the mortgage market, investment activity subjects CFO ahead of most other regions. In 2012, 28% of all housing were constructed in the Central Federal District and 22% of all mortgage loans in the country were provided therein.

“This is good and at the same time alarming sign speaking about the need to eliminate disparities through the Resettlement Scheme of the Russian Federation” said I.N.Slyunyaev. The milestones for new housing approved by the Russian Ministry of Regional Development for 2012 were achieved in 9 of the 18 entities of the CFD. The plan was fulfilled by: Belgorod (108.6%), Bryansk (100.5%), Voronezh (115.2%), Kaluga (112.9%), Kostroma (103.2%), Orel (102.7%), Ryazan (103.3%), Tambov (109.2%) and Yaroslavl (100.3%) regions. Many others have significant delays. The reports on this issue were made by Deputy Minister of Regional Development Vladimir Dedyukhin, Head of the Administration of Lipetsk Region Oleg Korolyov and Governor of Ivanovo Region Mikhail Men. It was noted that the leader of the Central Federal District in terms of housing commission per capita is Belgorod region (1.215 million square meters commissioned in 2012, the number of inhabitants is 1.5 million); the most active use of loan mortgages by residents is in Voronezh region (more than 11.000 loans provided in 2012 and the 1st quarter of this year).

M.M.Men drew attention to the low investment attractiveness of the “non-capital” cities: most of the housing is built in the regional centers, and it is difficult to attract investors into towns, although the cost per square meter is much lower therein. The heads of the regions made proposals on measures to facilitate the growth of residential housing construction. One of them is increasing the investment in communal infrastructure. This theme was continued by subsequent speakers. Director General of the Fund assisting the restructuring of housing and public utilities Konstantin Tsitsin noticed that in conditions of low profitable projects in the housing sector the subsidizing of interest rates provided for by Law no. 185 is not enough for private investors.

 As of today, no constituent entity of the Russian Federation has submitted an application to the Fund for the modernization of the communal infrastructure. Konstantin Tsitsin proposed an amendment to the legislation to allow direct subsidies made by the Fund to cover the cost for the modernization of the communal infrastructure of non-diversified municipalities. “Our calculations show that the allocation of 3 billion rubles from the existing 15 billion rubles will implement 100 projects in the field of communal infrastructure, that is, in fact, cover all single-industry cities”, said Konstantin Tsitsin.