To provide Ukrainians with affordable housing, the Government is developing preferential programs "Lease with the right to buy" and "Social lease"

To provide Ukrainians with affordable housing, the Government is developing several preferential programs - in addition to the existing eOselya program, the mechanisms of "Lease with the right to buy" and "Social Lease" will be introduced. This was stated by Yulia Svyrydenko, First Vice 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".

"As a result of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has suffered the greatest destruction since the Second World War. Dozens of cities 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-story. Unfortunately, new destruction is being added every day. The Russians continue to deliberately target residential infrastructure.

At the same time, thousands of Ukrainians have left their homes because of the occupation. Some have gone abroad, while others have taken refuge in safer regions of Ukraine. As of today, there are about 5 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine. There are also about 2 million families who have irrevocably lost their homes. That is why the issue of housing is one of the most urgent for us," emphasized Yulia Svyrydenko.

To meet this need to some extent, the Government is currently implementing two programs. The first is eRestoration, which provides for compensation to Ukrainians whose housing is destroyed or damaged. The second is the eOselya mortgage program. Under its terms, virtually every Ukrainian can take out an affordable housing loan at 3 or 7%.

"In addition to the Affordable Mortgage program, which is already being presented by eOselya, we are considering the possibility of introducing several other tools 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, PJSC "Ukrfinzhytlo", and the state has already financed its authorized capital by UAH 50 billion at the expense of domestic government bonds (OVDPs), and plans to make an additional injection of another UAH 20 billion into the capital of the USFH this year," Yulia Svyrydenko continued.

The Government plans to issue 12 thousand housing loans in 2024 and 23 thousand in 2025 for a total amount of UAH 56.6 billion.

The preference will be given to newly built apartments, houses and townhouses or those under construction. In this way, the state 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.

"Before the full-scale Russian invasion, mortgage loans in Ukraine amounted to less than 1% of GDP. While in the Eurozone countries, this figure averaged 40%. Our strategic goal is to reach 10% of GDP in 10 years. Moreover, according to our strategy, construction has been identified as one of the priority sectors for the recovery of the Ukrainian economy. After the war is over, Ukraine will become the largest construction site in Europe.

We strive to develop various instruments to provide Ukrainians with affordable housing. That is why, along with affordable mortgages, we are now developing additional affordable rental programs - with the right to buy and social rent. The most important thing for us is to provide people with permanent housing. These processes will also contribute to the formation of a sustainable economy that develops in unison with other economies of the European Union," summarized Yulia Sviridenko.