Ukrainians are raising money to restore housing: who really should pay for it

While the country is at war and the state only promises citizens compensation for destroyed houses, Ukrainians are increasingly restoring their homes themselves and at their own expense. Experts say that the state could help people bring their homes into proper condition before winter.

“Today” figured out who and at whose expense should restore the destroyed housing.

Repair before the cold

Despite all the talk about the imminent restoration of Ukraine, the holding of donor conferences and other meetings of highly respected experts, there has still not been, and still is not, any money to restore destroyed housing for citizens. In most cases, Ukrainians restore housing on their own.

In the Kyiv region, it was recently calculated that by the end of the year there will be enough funds to restore less than 6% of private houses. Hands do not reach apartment blocks yet – there is no money.

And the law that would regulate payments to victims was adopted at the end of March in the first reading and is still in parliament. And there are no funds yet for the restoration of housing that was destroyed during the hostilities. Experts say that in order to receive reparations from Russia, we first need to win the war.

“People are now restoring houses at their own expense. Everyone understands that they need to have time to put their houses in order before the cold weather. In my opinion, the state for such citizens should have implemented a program of quick targeted soft loans for the purchase of building materials. For example, a homeowner photographed the destruction, provided evidence of ownership and receives at least UAH 100-200 thousand for restoration, which will often be enough to restore roofs, individual walls, replace windows or insulate,” says Yury Gaidai, senior economist at the Center for Economic Strategies.

According to him, such a mechanism would remove some of the problems with destroyed housing and would support consumer demand better than financing start-ups through Oschadbank. And these funds could be immediately added to future reparations from the aggressor.

What to do with new buildings

Another interesting question arose from people who invested in the primary housing market before the war, but now do not know what to do with such housing.

“Most of the funds for the new building in Irpin we contributed before the war. Now we are faced with a choice – to contribute the rest of the funds and receive ownership or wait for the end of the war,” – says Yuri from Kiev.

Lawyers say that if the developer rents or has already put the house into operation, then it is better to formalize the ownership of housing. After all, otherwise you have in your hands not an apartment, but an investment agreement.

“If you have the right to own housing and something happens to it, then there is a high probability that the state will help with its restoration or pay compensation in one form or another. At least such a bill was adopted in the first reading. When If you have an investment agreement in your hands, then you will not be able to claim such payments from the state. , – explains lawyer Marina Koval.

Developers have recently also found themselves in a rather difficult situation: the cost of building materials is growing, and the demand for new housing in the near future will remain low due to a decrease in citizens’ incomes.

“In order to avoid bankruptcies and focus on the completion of facilities with a completion stage of more than 50%, developers can develop a mechanism for re-issuing rights to future apartments purchased on an installment plan in objects frozen due to the war, to apartments in houses whose construction is at the final stage,” – says Vladimir Sementsov, co-founder and managing partner of INSPI Development.

This step will achieve 2 goals: avoiding bankruptcies due to non-fulfillment of obligations (freezing new facilities) and receiving installment payments, the funds of which will be directed to the further construction of almost finished facilities.

Earlier we wrote how long it will take to restore destroyed housing. Read about what will happen to the dollar and the euro by the end of summer here.