On April 16, during a video conference with the government members, the Russian president Vladimir Putin announced measures to support the construction industry. The government has already begun developing concrete regulations that will allow for implementation of such measures.
Presidential suggestions are:
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Launch a preferential mortgage program:
a) Comfort-class housing mortgage rate should be set to 6.5% (available for deals of up to 3 million rubles in regional cities, and up to 8 million rubles in Moscow and St. Petersburg);
b) The preferential rate will be valid for the entire loan term;
c) Citizens can apply for a mortgage program under these conditions until November 1.
d) Around 6 billion rubles from the budget will be allocated for the implementation of this program. -
Top up the Assistance Fund for defrauded housing equity holders up to 30 billion rubles.
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Provide the state company “Dom. RF” with guarantees of the Ministry of Finance in the amount of 50 billion rubles. The funds will be used to buy out new comfort class apartments from developers.
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Take measures to subsidize loan interest rates for developers for a total of 12 billion rubles.
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Provide subsidies to construction companies that keep jobs and keep paying to their employees.
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At the same time, developers must accept an obligation to complete the construction of residential buildings planned for commissioning in 2020–2021 and maintain all health safety and sanitary protocols at construction sites.
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Continue the implementation of major infrastructure projects, and not suspend construction projects in the regions.
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The budget advance to state construction contractors should be increased from 30% to 50%.
“We will continue implementing projects such as expanding the capacity of the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian Railway, building roads in southern Russia, including approaches to the Krymsky Bridge and the Black Sea coast. We will proceed with modernizing airfield complexes in Chelyabinsk, Perm, Khabarovsk, Norilsk, and building modern port facilities in Murmansk, the Baltic region, Black Sea and Far East,” — the president said.
The Ministry of Finance of Russia has allocated 1.07 trillion rubles of the 2020 budget for the “Comprehensive Infrastructure Development Plan” and the “Safe and High-Quality Roads” national project. The Federal budget will supply 524 billion rubles, and the remainder of 1.07 trillion rubles will come from the regional budgets.
In early April, the government also announced plans to abolish fines for housing developers until the end of the year and implement the automatic year-long extension of building permits, which expire in 2020.
