Experts assessed the idea to temporarily block funds from the sale of real estate

If Russia introduces a mandatory blocking of money from the sale of real estate for seven days, such a step may create difficulties in the real estate market, both for owners and sellers, says Ruslan Syrtsov, managing director of Metrium. He told Izvestia on December 9.

Earlier in the day it was reported that in Russia it is proposed to block funds from the sale of an apartment or house for seven days to check the validity of the real estate transaction. As "Izvestia" found out, a letter with such a proposal to amend the legislation to the head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Elvira Nabiullina sent deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing from the faction "United Russia" Svetlana Razvorotneva.

"Despite the increasing cases of apartment fraud, when attackers convince owners of the need to sell and transfer the proceeds to someone, the mandatory freezing of money in transactions seems excessive. There are about 2-3 million transactions in Russia during the year, and, of course, fraudulent activity is statistically irrelevant in this volume. But mandatory freezing of funds may create difficulties in the real estate market, both for owners and sellers," Syrtsov said.

According to him, often both parties to a transaction are set to agree as quickly as possible, and they do not need unnecessary temporary obstacles. In addition, the longer the deal goes on, the higher the chances that it will fall apart: the seller or buyer may change their mind, circumstances may change, and so on.

"Besides, from the point of view of civil law, it is impossible to directly limit the will of the parties to a transaction. Even if we suspect that a person sells an apartment under the influence of fraudsters, there is no legal mechanism to terminate such an agreement, unless the seller is recognized as incapable. The decision can be changed by, say, relatives, but fraudsters usually attack lonely and elderly people, and from this point of view, the freezing measure will hardly increase the protection of vulnerable people," the expert suggested.

Syrtsov expressed the opinion that a better way would be to deepen the participation of a third party in transactions, such as a bank with escrow accounts or a guarantee or a notary deposit, as in France, where a notary takes responsibility for the legal security of the transaction.

"A notary may in certain cases freeze funds for a certain period of time if he has suspicions about the capacity or good faith of the parties. But there is no strict limitation on the terms of transfer of funds," he added.

In turn, Dmitry Golev, commercial director of Optima Development, also believes that the implementation of such an initiative may adversely affect the development of the market.

"The measure is taken to combat cases of fraud, in which owners sell real estate under the influence of intruders. But in Moscow 20-30 such incidents are recorded per month, while in the primary and secondary markets of the capital total about 20 thousand transactions are made monthly. That is, the share of concessions and DCP (sale and purchase agreements. - Ed.), registered under the pressure of criminals, is about 0.1%. This is definitely not a reason to complicate the work of the entire market," he emphasized.

In his opinion, the consequences of the innovations may be critical, because against the background of a high key rate, alternative transactions are particularly popular, which as a result may become more difficult to conduct. In addition, in some cases it will be difficult to apply trade-in, for example, when the terms of fixing the value of the apartment expire, the expert suggested.

"I am convinced that the authorities should introduce more precise and balanced measures to counteract fraudsters," concluded Golev.

Earlier, December 4, it was reported that more than half of the surveyed (79%) of Russians save on deposits to buy real estate. This is stated in the results of the study of the company Regions Development. The purchase of cars interested 38% of respondents. 29% of survey participants plan to allocate funds for housing repair.