The housing queues, in which more than a million Ukrainians have been waiting for years without any results, should finally move. To do this, new mortgage mechanisms will be launched and the privatization of housing from the state will be canceled. This was reported by the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning Olena Shulyak in a comment to Ukrinform.
“That is why we are carrying out a housing reform – to create a housing policy at the state level that will finally effectively solve the housing issue of citizens who need improved housing conditions,” she noted.
According to her, the main problem of the current system remains the housing queues, which have practically not moved for decades.
“Each year, at best, several hundred people receive apartments from the state. Despite the fact that, according to various estimates, there may be 1-1.2 million Ukrainians in the housing queues,” the MP emphasized.
Shulyak sees the reason for this situation in outdated legislation, because the Housing Code of 1983, adopted back in Soviet times, is still in effect in Ukraine.
“According to it, a family that needs improved housing conditions can receive housing from the state housing fund for lifelong use. I emphasize – use, not ownership. And such housing became property already in the 1990s, when privatization began. As a result, the state housing fund was completely exhausted, so there was nothing to rent out, and the queues began to grow,” explained the head of the parliamentary committee.
Shulyak emphasized that the first step in the housing reform was the abolition of the outdated Housing Code and the development of new legislation. This is, in particular, the adopted law “On the Basic Principles of Housing Policy” (draft law No. 12377), which, according to the deputy, is based on European experience.
“We focused on international approaches and adapted them to Ukrainian realities,” she noted.
At the same time, Shulyak explained that one of the fundamental innovations will be the abolition of the privatization of housing received from the state. “In EU countries, there is no practice of distributing housing as property. Therefore, in Ukraine, the privatization of such housing will be abolished – a year after the law comes into force,” the deputy said.
Instead, according to her, the state will introduce new tools that should unblock housing queues. Shulyak noted that the most tangible changes for citizens will be the emergence of affordable housing, social rent and new rules for using official housing.
“Every Ukrainian who needs improved housing conditions and is registered for this purpose will be able to obtain housing as property thanks to the launch of several state mortgages at once, and the updated mechanism of housing and construction companies,” Shulyak explained.
At the same time, social rent is provided for those citizens and communities who will not be able to use a mortgage.
“Its cost will not exceed 30% of the family’s income,” the deputy specified.
Also, after the law comes into force, new rules for obtaining official housing will come into effect – “you will be able to live in it only temporarily and for a rent that will also be significantly lower than the market rate.”
Speaking about the risks of implementing the reform, Shulyak called corruption the main threat. At the same time, according to her, the bill already provides for safeguards.
“We are betting on digitalization,” she emphasized.
The politician explained that a single information and analytical system will be created in the housing sector for this purpose, thanks to which all existing housing queues will be digitized, and “it is this system, not an official, that will decide which option for solving the housing issue is suitable for this or that candidate for improving housing conditions with the help of the state.”
Shulyak emphasized that the system will analyze everything – the availability of housing, income level, marital status, social status, etc. And it will select the solution that is best suited for a particular family
“Not an official who can “solve the issue” for a bribe, but a digital solution that cannot be bribed or falsified in such a way that a family that was in the hundredth place in the queue suddenly found itself, conditionally, in the second,” the head of the parliamentary committee concluded.
