Expert opinion

N. Kosareva, IUE President, who heads a Commission on Housing Policy with the Public Council  under the Ministry of Construction of Russia, at a meeting, presented a concept of how to streamline the legislative and regulatory framework for HCC. 

N. Kosareva proposed to replicate the cooperatives created in Western countries where the ownership of the dwellings constructed lies with a cooperative acting as a legal entity rather than with an individual acting as an equity holder. Development of HCC shall help assure the affordability of dwelling units to persons with...

Excerpts from an interview given by Nadezhda B. Kosareva, IUE President, to a web portal Строительство.RU:

— Nadezhda Borisovna, how would you outline the amendments?

— These are structured, mainly, around four thematic blocks. The first one focuses on how to strengthen the requirements to developers and control over them. Specifically, a requirement regarding the charter capital of a developer has been changed. It has been recommended that the requirement be based on an established formula.

The second block of requirements...

A correspondent of FBA "The Economy Today" learnt from Nadezhda Kosareva, the President of the "Institute for Urban Economics", what kind of living space is bought during the crisis and whether the Russians need foreign currency mortgages.

- Nadezhda Borisovna, do you think there is any sense in continuing the experience with foreign currency mortgage in Russia? After all, due to foreign currency mortgage loans more than one thousand of Russians are now driven into a financial deadlock.

- I do not see any sense in it whatsoever. Do...

In Russia there has exacerbated the problem of hoodwinked investors – for the first time within several years this topic has been included in the federal agenda, causing a stir. "SU-155", one of the country's largest construction holdings appeared on the verge of bankruptcy. This means that dozens of thousands of its customers risk being left without the apartments, for which they have already paid off.

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Tatiana Polidi, Director of the Real Estate Market Department of The Institute for Urban Economics notes that, in general, the number of...

The fact that these cities lead the rating of attractiveness of the urban environment could hardly surprise anyone – Russian capitals along with the central city of Tatarstan for many years have been ranking high on various ratings. High rating of Podolsk, a Moscow satellite town, which ranks 6^th appears to be less typical. Last year, however, the town ranked 4^th on the rating.

Source: “Rossiiskaya Gazeta”, December 30^th, 2014

In Russia, the amounts of monthly gas payments, especially by residents of apartment buildings, are at the minimum level. If reduce the costs on paper, residential users would pay for gas several times as high. The thing is that today the price of gas meters is skyrocketing, and, hence, meters wouldn’t repay for many years.

Source: “Rossiiskaya Gazeta”, December 1^st, 2014

The issue of who should be subsidized in the first place has been really on the agenda because neither uniform model nor lottery-based support could have been effective in the case of single-industry towns. It has been decided, thus, that 75 settlements from the “red zone” would get a priority access to budgetary funds. Another question eventually arose: for what tasks and in what manner the funds should be spent. There have been three options – support selected production facilities, and investment projects, or switch to financing the development of urban infrastructure. Our institute...

From September 1^st , the registration of HOAs was canceled because following the amendments to the Civil Code new HOAs couldn’t be established. In their place, the owners of premises in apartment buildings might establish solely Real Estate Owners Associations (REOA). Previously established HOAs, however, have encountered a problem when found themselves unable to operate beyond the legal framework.

Source: “Rossiiskaya Gazeta”, January 30^th, 2015

I wouldn’t call the reform in the sphere of the overhaul of residential buildings a liberal one. On the contrary, it’s nothing but a hierarchical administrative system built in the best traditions of the Soviet Union.

Authorities, at their own discretion, determine a program, schedule, type of the overhaul, amount of payment, and concentrate large sums in the hands of one operator. That means, though you own the property, we would dispose of it.

Source: On-line media “Gazeta.Ru”, December 4^th, 2014