Social mortgages exceed 100,000 rubles per square metre but are still two times cheaper
The rise in prices for apartments in social mortgage houses in Salavat Kupere residential area has broken last year's record
The State Housing Fund under the Rais of Tatarstan has announced a ruffle for apartments in three blocks of flats for rent in Salavat Kupere microdistrict. The price per square meter is 105,200 rubles — 17,200, or 19.5%, more expensive than a year earlier. “Apartments have gone up in price by 3-4 times while we wait in line,” social mortgage holders sadly note on the State Housing Fund page in a messenger. Read about the new cost of social mortgage apartments, the benefits of purchasing them and the results of the “experiment” with the rent out of partially “furnished” housing in a report of Realnoe Vremya.
Lack of choice now and uncertainty in the future
Kazan social mortgage holders have learned about the new cost of apartments under the programme. Thus, the price per square metre of housing in Makhabbet residential complex in the “Salavat Kupere residential area is 105,200 rubles. The information was confirmed to Realnoe Vremya by the press service of the State Housing Fund under the Rais of Tatarstan. They clarified that this concerns new housing with finished repairs.
“I have been participating in the social mortgage programme for only two years, but even during this time the price per square meter has increased very much,” says Kazan resident Zulfat Akhmetshin. “Many social mortgage holders express dissatisfaction, but many are also dissatisfied with something else — the fact that few apartments are being built. There are not enough for everyone. In any case, buying an apartment with a social mortgage is profitable — the price is significantly lower, and the down payment is much less than with a regular mortgage loan.”
He noted that, in addition to the rising price, social mortgage holders have another reason for dissatisfaction — complete uncertainty about the future price per square metre at the time of joining the programme:
“You don't know how much you'll end up paying, and the monthly payment also grows over time, and I know people whose last payments were 100,000 rubles.”
In 2024, Akhmetshin said, there was an additional reason for dissatisfaction. Previously, public sector employees — teachers, doctors — could apply for apartments being built using social mortgages in Privolzhsky District of Kazan near the Republican Clinical Hospital — in the M14 Microdistrict. Housing in these buildings is more expensive but also more comfortable. But this year, only those who are already registered and live in this area have the opportunity to apply for it.
“Twice as low as the market price”
“Three houses in Salavat Kupere microdistrict in Mekhebbet residential complex are currently up for competition,” the Housing Fund told Realnoe Vremya. “Social mortgage holders can see these apartments in their personal accounts. The cost per square metre is 105,200 rubles. The apartments have been renovated, all necessary plumbing has been installed. You can move in on the day you receive the keys.”
The initial payment is from 10% of the cost of the flat, the Housing Fund clarified. The mortgage rate is 7% per year, it is provided for a period of 9 to 28.5 years. When a child is born after registration, the family receives a gratuitous subsidy of 200,000 rubles, which is added to the initial payment, and if the keys to the apartment have already been received, it is counted toward the payment of the social mortgage.
The fund specified that a year ago, when the previous houses were being delivered under the social mortgage, the cost per square metre was 88,000 rubles.
“Now the cost per square metre in new housing in Kazan is already around 200,000 rubles,” the Housing Fund stressed the fact that social mortgage holders will receive apartments at a price half the market price. “Considering that they are being delivered without renovation, and before moving in, you need to spend at least 1.2-1.5 million rubles, and that the initial payment on the mortgage is 50% of the cost of the apartment, and the loan rates are several times higher, the terms of the social mortgage look attractive.”
There are no “experimental” apartments
Last year, houses with full-length apartments in Mekhabbet complex equipped with built-in kitchen appliances, furniture and with improved renovation were introduced under the social mortgage as an experiment. The cost per square metre in them was 93,000 rubles — 5.6% higher than the base price.
“There was also demand for these apartments,” they say in the Housing Fund. “But not in those families who managed to ‘accumulate’ furniture and household appliances while waiting for an apartment.”
Currently, such apartments are not participating in the competition.
“It's very cheap”
Gizatova noted that new apartments are currently being sold in Osinovo in buildings next to Salavat Kuper at a price of 143,100 rubles per square metre and higher, and this housing is in the base condition.”
At the same time, the expert of the newspaper noted that the demand for housing in this part of the city is quite high:
“Rental housing is popular there for those who work in Innopolis, in the logistics centre in Tura and nearby. These are people who have to travel daily not to Kazan, but towards M-7 and Zelenodolsk.”
Who will buy it and why?
The annual increase in prices for social mortgage housing in Tatarstan has already become a tradition. It is enough to remember that a year ago, prices for apartments in the Mekhebbat residential complex increased by more than 17% — in a much shorter period, from August to October. At that time, the Housing Fund explained that such a price per square meter was set “taking into account the costs incurred in financing the construction, capitalisation of the land plot and the state of the real estate market.”
As a result, many social mortgage holders simply could not participate in the competition — they considered the price unaffordable. At that time, the programme participants contacted the rais of Tatarstan and asked to look into the reasons for the sharp rise in prices.
“Social mortgages are gradually becoming profitable only for those who actually have housing, and plan to buy new apartments cheaper and resell them at a higher price,” said Aliya R., a teacher from Kazan and mother of two children. “It seems to me that a good idea — to provide affordable housing to those who really need it, but do not have the opportunity to buy at market prices, is gradually turning into a convenient tool for speculation in the housing market.”
True, and the possibility of profitable speculation on the difference in price today is questionable: in advertisements for the sale of practically new second-hand flats in neighbouring blocks of flats in this microdistrict, one can find offers priced from 87,000 rubles per square metre.