What measures to support housing construction were proposed at a meeting of the State Council
At a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council, on April 15, the situation in the field of housing construction was discussed – taking into account high rates on loans and reducing the demand for housing, the authorities see the risks of industry inhibition. Against this background, the regions and the government offer a number of measures to support the market, starting from the impressive of a preferential family mortgage to a point reduction in financial burden on developers. Another tool is the search and expansion of the proposal of land for individual housing construction (IZHS), it supports the entry of housing in the plus in annual terms. The proposals have yet to work out – the main difficulties, judging by the discussion, are associated with the balancing of the risks for the budget and with the restriction of the growth of credit burden on citizens.
One of the topics of the Presidium of the State Council was the situation in the housing construction sector – as President Vladimir Putin noted, taking into account the current conjuncture, there are risks of industry braking (now more than 2 thousand projects are implemented with the postponement of the delivery for six months). Fears cause a reduction in demand due to high market rates on mortgages, as well as a decrease in the launch of new projects by 24% (See “Kommersant” from April 10).
It should be noted, according to Rosstat, 31.9 million square meters were commissioned in the first quarter of this year. m of housing, which is almost 9% more than a year earlier (in March – 10.5 million square meters, plus 21%). The trend, however, is the same: the input of apartment buildings remains in the minus: in January -March – 7.3 million square meters. m, which is 37% less than a year earlier, and in March – 2.7 million square meters. m (minus 19%), the growth is provided by the IZHS sector (in the first quarter – 24.6 million square meters, which is 20%higher than a year earlier, and in March – 7.8 million square meters, an increase of 43.5%). In 2025, aggregate forecasts are still quite optimistic (entering at least 100 million square meters), while the authorities are concerned with the prospects for the entry of houses since 2027, they were discussed at the State Council.
The proposed measures are divided into several directions – this is the support of demand, the developers themselves, as well as the stimulation of the development of the growing household.
The presented ideas have yet to work out: as the discussion showed, the main forces are associated with the presence of risks for the budget and the danger of excessive credit burden on citizens.
Stimulation of demand was discussed in the form of expanding the coverage of a family mortgage at 6%. Recall that after the cancellation from July 1, 2024, a mass preferential mortgage on new buildings, this program became the main tool for subsidizing construction. The head of Tatarstan and the chairman of the Commission of the State Council “Infrastructure for Life” Rustam Minnikhanov proposed, in particular, to differentiate the maximum amount of the loan depending on the cost of the “square” in the regions and the number of family members, citing the current limit (6 million rubles) covers only half the cost of the most popular two-room apartments and de facto half Citizens buy areas on credit already at a market rate.
The reaction of the financial unit was predictable: the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov recalled that since the beginning of the year the issuance of a family mortgage has grown by 10%, and this year subsidizing will cost 2 trillion rubles. With a planned budget deficit 1.2 trillion rubles. It is satisfied with the current dynamics of mortgage lending and the Central Bank, which, apparently, can become the main obstacle to expanding preferential programs, earlier the regulator sought to slow down the issuance of a mortgage that dispersed the price. The head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina noted that according to the results of the year, an increase in issuing by 3-8%is expected, « this, of course, is not 30%, as before, but also an increase. »
Against the background of reducing the possibilities of mortgages, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin proposed to actively develop alternative ways of buying housing, such as the mechanism of housing and recovery and the expansion of installments from the developer. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is worth working on the provision of installments when buying housing after its commissioning, if the developer is fully calculated with the bank (now the installment mechanism is used before delivery), with the possibility of establishing a collateral for such property. The Central Bank, the enemy of the “zero mortgage from the developer”-did not receive the idea of support, Elvira Nabiullina asked “not to resort” to this due to the risks of uncontrolled growth of citizens’ debts (the developers have risks).
Sounded proposals for the support of the developers themselves amid the growth of design funding rates (now on average 10%) due to reducing their debt coating with funds on escrow accounts.
Among the ideas – the resumption of subsidizing the interest rate on loans of developers, the simplification of refinancing and the moratorium on the sanctions of banks when changing the conditions of the project.
For the development of IZHS, which provides more than half of the input of housing in the country, Marat Khusnullin proposed taking measures to ensure this segment with land in order to eliminate the shortage of areas provided by infrastructure. In this regard, he proposed to include additional lands to the boundaries of settlements, including agricultural recognition, if they are not of particular value (a plan for the search for free sites, we recall, was discussed at the collegium of the Federal Property Management Agency; See “Kommersant” from March 19).
