Conclusions of closed meeting with Putin: housing development, Tatarstan cosmodrome and battery collection
Will FON and Svey construction sites’ investors avoid the transition to escrow accounts?
To fulfil one of the May decrees, it's planned to augment the annual plan for housing commissioning in Tatarstan to 3,8m square metres. But districts won't have enough money to provide such a number of new blocks of flats with infrastructure. In addition, accelerated transition to escrow accounts will complicate the completion of construction of troubled blocks of flats in exchange for land parcels. Liliya Galimova told journalists what proposals for housing development were made to Vladimir Putin, about the construction of a private cosmodrome in Tatarstan and where flat batteries and accumulators would be collected.
About proposals for housing development
Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov made key proposals to regulate housing development public at the extended panel session of the Russian State Council. As the meeting was behind closed doors, the official representative of the Kremlin mentioned some of them at the briefing.
The first proposal is to renew a programme subsidising mortgage interest rates to purchase housing, which was already applied in 2015-16. According to Galimova, a considerable volume of housing remains out of demand. Moreover, analysis of mortgages shows that there is big demand for second-hand housing. It's offered to stimulate demand for new blocks of flats by reducing mortgage rates to 8% by 2024. However, as Galimova notes, it's forecasted the current rates could probably grow in the short run.
Secondly, to provide social, engineering and transport infrastructure. As the official representative of the Kremlin told, Tatarstan needs to commission about 3,8m square metres of housing a year in the next six years. It should be reminded that nowadays the annual commissioning plan is 2,4m square metres in Tatarstan. Liliya Galimova noted that the augmentation of commissioned housing will require building schools, kindergartens, polyclinics, a lot of roads. A specific sum wasn't named, but Galimova characterised the sum as ''considerable''.
''Given that the national project presupposes one sum for all Russian regions in infrastructure, this share turns out tiny when distributing to the regions. Consequently, the regions raise a question, how to provide infrastructure with so fast paces of construction,'' Lilia Galimova explained. According to her, the costs needed to provide the infrastructure are unbearable for the regions.
The third offer is to provide a soft transition to the sale of flats through escrow accounts. According to the data mentioned at the briefing, this year's plan for invested housing commissioning totals 1m square metres. 109 developers in total are registered in Tatarstan, but 54 of them may not switch to the new financing scheme. This means, the date of 12,000 equity participation agreements (EPA), which were already signed with these developers, remain in ''an unclear buffer zone''.
The accelerated transition to the new project financing scheme might negatively affect hoodwinked investors, too. According to the data Liliya Galimova provided, there are 4,082 people of this kind in Tatarstan. The Kremlin's official representative reminded the republic used a scheme when developers completed the construction of troubled blocks of flats in exchange for land parcels.
''This scheme showed its efficiency. But many questions arise when introducing escrow accounts because this mechanism makes such a scheme impossible. This is why there were made proposals to conserve the previous scheme of financing of equity construction facilities to complete the construction of blocks of flats with a high level of readiness, that's to say, with seen results. Probably to allow regions to define such developers themselves,'' Liliya Galimova explained.
Moreover, there was raised a question about the possibility to permit developers to use money from escrow accounts in stages, first of all, those who deal with investors' problems. As Galimova noted, Vladimir Putin quite positively assessed the idea of soft transition to the new financing scheme. It should be added that Realnoe Vremya's experts also consider the goal to annually commission 120m square metres of housing in Russia a challenging task.
About participation in investment forum
Rustam Minnikhanov took part in an investment forum in Sochi. There was signed an agreement with Governor of Penza Oblast Ivan Belozertsev on trade, economic, scientific, technical cooperation at the forum. Nowadays, the interregional commodity turnover between Tatarstan and Penza Oblast is a bit more than 4bn rubles.
The programme also scheduled a meeting of Minnikhanov with Director General of Duracell Russia PLC Yury Korotayev. As the Kremlin's official representative told, there was to be signed an agreement on cooperation in the development of separate accumulation, collection and disposal system of flat chemical power sources in Tatarstan.
It's a pilot project to implement an integrated system of separate accumulation, collection of flat batteries and accumulators with their further disposal in a specialised enterprise in Chelyabinsk. The project of the agreement with the company presupposes creation of about 2,300 points for separate accumulation and collection of flat batteries and accumulators. Such points are supposed to be installed in general education institutions, shops, housing fund facilities, offices and administrative facilities.
''We're saying that there will be organised work where dangerous substances won't get to enterprises where waste is treated with heat,'' Galimova stressed.
About visit to UAE
At the end of the last week, Rustam Minnikhanov was to take part in IDEX 2019 international defence exhibition in the United Arab Emirates. It's held once in two years and is one of the most prestigious weapon exhibitions in the world.
As Galimova told, 18 companies were represented on the Russian exposition. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE's Armed Forces Mohammed bin Zayed took part in the exhibition. Rustam Minnikhanov was going to talk with the crown prince.
About legal action on bankruptcy of Ak Bars Holding
''We can't be talking about any significant problems now,'' Liliya Galimova said when commenting the intention of Otkritie Bank FC PJSC to bring a legal action on bankruptcy of ABK.
About construction of private cosmodrome
There are no certain projects to build a private cosmodrome in Tatarstan, said Liliya Galimova. According to her, an investor was considering not only Tatarstan but also other regions to locate the site.
''Nowadays we can't seriously be talking about the project,'' the Kremlin's official representative made a conclusion.
It should be reminded that we're talking about the creation of sub-orbital tourist rockets by CosmoCourse company. It was said the investor was considering an option of building the cosmodrome in Alky District.