Govt developing several preferential programmes to provide Ukrainians with affordable housing

The Ukrainian government is developing several preferential programmes to provide citizens with affordable housing: in addition to the existing eOselia (eHousing) program, the “Rent to Buy” and “Social Rent” mechanisms will be introduced.

This was announced by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during her online speech at the event "The System of Affordable Rental Housing in Ukraine,” Ukrinform reports, citing the Ministry’s press service.

"As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has suffered the greatest destruction since the Second World War. Dozens of towns and villages have been destroyed, and thousands of people have lost their homes. At least 160,000 buildings and structures have been destroyed, about 20,000 of them multi-storey. Unfortunately, new destruction is being reported every day. The russians continue to deliberately target residential infrastructure… That is why the issue of housing is one of the most urgent for us,” she said.

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According to Svyrydenko, to meet this need to some extent, the Government is currently implementing two programmes. The first is eVidnovlennia [eRestoration], which provides for compensation to Ukrainians whose housing is either destroyed or damaged. The second is the eOselia preferential mortgage programme. Under its terms, virtually every Ukrainian can take out an affordable housing loan at 3 or 7%.

"In addition to the Affordable Mortgage programme, which is already being presented under the eOselia, we are considering the introduction of several other instruments that are currently under development. We are talking about the rent-to-own system and social rent. These approaches are quite common in the West. To implement this, we actually already have a single state-owned operator - PrJSC Ukrfinzhytlo, and the state has already financed its authorised capital by UAH 50 billion through domestic government bonds (OVDPs), and plans to make an additional injection of another UAH 20 billion into the capital of the Ukrfinzhytlo this year," she said.

The Government is planning to issue 12,000 housing loans in 2024 and 23,000 in 2025 for a total amount of UAH 56.6 billion.

The minister explained that preference will be given to newly built apartments, houses and townhouses or those under construction. In this way, the Government will not only help solve the housing problem of Ukrainians, but also stimulate the development of the housing market and related industries, create new jobs and fill budgets at various levels. It will also contribute to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.

As reported, the eOselia program, launched in October 2012, is implemented by the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ukrfinzhytlo, and Diia.