Agro Perspectiva

Housing minister: About 8.5 thousand to use cheap mortgages

11.07.2012 10:17 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — By the beginning of July, about 8.5 thousand people expressed the desire to partake in the state program for cheapening the cost of mortgage loans in Ukraine, Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine Anatoliy Blyzniuk told a press briefing after a call conference in Kyiv on Tuesday. «More than 8.5 thousand Ukrainian citizens today expressed their desire to participate in this program,» Blyzniuk said. He added that, according to expert estimates, the number of people wishing to improve their living conditions will grow. «We have a problem that people have not yet decided how they could participate in this program,» the minister said. In this regard, Blyzniuk ordered city mayors to conduct outreach in the field within 20 days and to familiarize as many people as possible with the terms of participation in the program. He also added that, as of June this year, funding for the program Affordable Housing was allocated in the volume of about 100 million UAH, with the largest number of loans provided in Kyiv - 16 for 6.5 million UAH. «The budget allocated 1 billion UAH, of which 30 million UAH was sent to the regions in June, and then another 70 million UAH,» Blyzniuk said. The minister reminded that the cheapening of mortgages, according to the program, occurs through a mechanism of compensation of bank interest rates. In particular, the state pays 13% of the 16% annual loan interest, and the citizen pays the body of the loan and 3% per annum. «A citizen today has no need to seek a full amount of the payment and then wait for compensation from the state,» Blyzniuk added. As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for reducing the cost of mortgages for affordable housing to people in need of better housing conditions April 25, 2012 (Decree 343). Many banking institutions are ready to provide loans for housing under the program. In particular, those are Oschadbank and UkrGasBank throughout the country; Finance and Credit in Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv regions, the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol; UkrExImBank in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Lviv and Khmelnytsky regions; Ukrsotsbank in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Chernivtsi regions and Sevastopol; Brokbusinessbank in the city of Kyiv; Bank Forum in Dnipropetrovsk region; Prominvestbank in Chernihiv region; Financial Initiative in Chernivtsi region and Sevastopol city; Kredobank in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.