Minister of Regional Development Igor Slyunyayev has held a meeting on developing the rental housing market. The participants discussed a package of legislative acts required to establish a non-profit rentals institution. They noted that these acts should help to develop the rental housing market, to increase the housing construction scale as a whole, to reduce rental price growth and to protect the rights of real estate developers and tenants.
The draft laws provide for amendments to the Housing Code and certain legislative acts regulating relations on non-profit rentals.
The State Duma will review them in the first reading in the near future.
The participants also discussed tax breaks on rental contracts to develop non-profit rentals and to bring commercial rentals from the shadows. The draft acts suggest that not only those who buy housing will be entitled to a tax rebate, as is the case now, but also those who rent housing. Employers will be able to list their employees' accommodation expenses as labour compensation, and these expenses will be deducted from the income tax base.
