Igor Slyunyayev has held an All-Russian meeting on housing construction development.
In his address, Minister of Regional Development Igor Slyunyayev said that currently the construction sector produces 5.5% of GDP and employs 5.3 million people, which is over 7% of the economically active population. It has close links with 30 economic sectors (metallurgy, engineering, timber processing, petrochemicals and others), and one job in the construction sector supports five employees in related sectors. In recent years, the Government has achieved a considerable increase in construction, Igor Slyunyayev said. In 2012, 65.2 million square metres of housing was built, which is double the volume in 2001; this is the highest level since 1990. Between January and April 2013, 14.1 million square metres of housing was commissioned, a 11.2% increase on the same period in 2012. Mortgages are now the most important source of housing finance: 22.7% of residential homes are purchased with the use of mortgages.
Despite these positive trends, there are some systemic problems. No region is meeting the strategic task of building 1 square metre of housing per capita per year. However, the planned levels of housing construction adopted by the Ministry of Regional Development for each region will not be reviewed or reduced, Mr Slyunyayev said.
Mr Slyunyayev elaborated on the task to reduce construction costs. He said that to comply with the roadmap on improving the business climate in the construction sector, the standards for the composition and content of work under project documentation will be optimised; the list of highly dangerous and technically complex projects will be reduced; the Government will establish some types of preparatory work which can be implemented ahead of obtaining a construction permit.
The work on updating the Strategy for the Development of the Construction Materials Industry and Housing Construction up to 2020 will be completed by the end of 2013. In order to create new and update existing capacities, there are plans to introduce tax incentives and provide favourable conditions for offering land plots, assistance in using energy resources, support in administrative procedures and favourable loans.
The concluding part of the Minister’s address was about the rental housing market. The necessary legal framework will be developed this year and will include various incentives to built rental housing. There are plans to allow VAT free operations on selling rental buildings and offer property and profit tax incentives to developers.
Source: Ministry of Regional Development
