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- Shifted payment: Russia will launch preferential lending in the housing and utilities sector
Shifted payment: Russia will launch preferential lending in the housing and utilities sector
The Ministry of Construction and Housing of Russia plans to provide for preferential lending in the housing and utilities sector through VEB.RF. This was announced by Minister of Construction and Housing Irek Faizullin during a meeting of the Council of Legislators of the Russian Federation at the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. We are talking about long-term loans within the framework of a syndicate with commercial banks with a fixed rate, which will be about 7% per annum. The mechanism is designed for large projects worth 3 billion rubles or more. Izvestia has examined how much additional investment will be attracted and whether it will help to modernize the housing and utilities system.
Lending parameters
Within the framework of the Council of Legislators of the Russian Federation at the Federal Assembly, the head of the Ministry of Construction of Russia Irek Faizullin noted the importance of attracting additional investment in the housing and utilities sector. The Minister said that in order to attract additional investments it is planned to provide for preferential lending through the mechanism of VEB.RF.
"We see the interest of the regions in this direction," Irek Faizullin emphasized.
Currently, the initiative is being worked out, joint work of the Ministry of Construction of Russia and VEB.RF with the participation of regions is underway, the ministry told Izvestia.
"This mechanism within the framework of a comprehensive approach to the development of the housing and utilities sector is considered as one of the measures for solving the tasks of modernizing the communal infrastructure, outlined by the Russian president in the May decree," the ministry said.
Funds can be provided for up to 20 years, the press service of VEB.RF specified.
"The launch of the program is planned from 2025. Projects from 1 billion rubles can apply for financing. At present, negotiations with major resource supplying organizations, energy companies and regions are being actively conducted," the state corporation added.
New support
Within the framework of the new national project "Infrastructure for Life" the federal project "Modernization of Communal Infrastructure" was adopted. The total amount of its financing until 2030 will reach about 4.5 trillion rubles, half of this amount should be made up of private investments.
The government plans to ensure their attraction in various ways, but one of the main ones will be the mechanism of infrastructure loans (long-term loans within the framework of a syndicate with commercial banks with a fixed rate of about 7% per annum), which will make it possible to finance projects worth at least 1 trillion rubles, Stanislav Guzhov, an expert of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Utilities, head of the project of the Presidential Academy Development Directorate, explained to Izvestia.
- Comfortable parameters of project lending and long terms of disbursement of funds should allow borrowers to ensure their repayment at the expense of the investment component of the tariff. These parameters will allow to accelerate the modernization of communal infrastructure in Russia and prevent potential emergencies in operation, as at the moment the wear and tear of communal infrastructure on average in the country is 40%, - he noted.
Attraction of credit resources for modernization of the housing and utilities sector is simply necessary, Evgeny Blekh, Professor of the Department of Theory and Systems of Sectoral Management, Faculty of Engineering Management, IOM RANEPA RANEPA, is sure.
- This is fixed in the Strategy for the development of the construction industry and housing and communal services of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 with a forecast up to 2035, which states that a significant part of the systems and facilities of housing and communal services needs qualitative technological modernization with the involvement of a significant amount of investment. About 40% of linear facilities of the housing and communal services sector need to be replaced (391 thousand out of 940 thousand kilometers of networks)," the expert confirmed to Izvestia.
Back in the summer, the Ministry of Construction prepared a draft government resolution providing for a new approach to the distribution of infrastructure budget loans in 2025-2030. It is about loans, which are given to regions for 15 years at a preferential rate of 3% per annum. The very idea of allocating credit resources for the modernization of the housing and utilities sector is not in doubt, but there are still questions related to the details, in which, as usual, everything is buried. There are two questions of principle: the final recipients - regional authorities or RSOs (municipal or private) - and the mechanism of loan repayment.
- In my opinion, the mechanism of preferential financing of the housing and utilities sector proposed by the Russian Ministry of Construction is an important element of the support system for the sector aimed at its modernization," Denis Krasnovsky, Deputy Director of the Corporate Ratings Group of ACRA, told Izvestia. - Targeted allocation of funds for renovation and maintenance of system reliability of the housing and utilities sector is one of the most important points of the state social policy. Involvement of commercial banks in this system by providing syndicated financing, in my opinion, will expand the range of potential investors in the industry, which, as a consequence, may lead to an increase in the volume of such financing.
Thus, according to him, for one ruble of public investment in the housing and utilities sector, three to ten rubles of non-state funds can be attracted. At the same time, it is worth paying attention to the repayable nature of the form of financing, which, in turn, can help to form a pool of money for the purpose of regular reinvestment of funds for the permanent support of the housing and utilities sector.
Monetary policy
Natalia Kazantseva, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements at the State University of Management, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that the high key rate has complicated the activities of companies in many industries.
- The construction industry, being of synergetic importance in the economy, has suffered, perhaps, most of all, especially in housing construction. The time of favorable mortgages for residential new buildings is over, and developers for the first time after the pandemic time must revise their business processes in construction. However, construction organizations will not be able to overcome the problems on their own, and the leadership of the industry is forced to take the initiative to apply preferential lending in the housing and utilities sector through the development institute VEB RF," she said.
In her opinion, it concerns not ordinary projects, but those that are of great importance in the field of housing construction. The most relevant in this area is the realization of infrastructure projects, as accidents in the housing and communal services system due to wear and tear, including utility networks, have become not uncommon. Private capital is supposed to be attracted to this sphere using long-term lending at a favorable interest rate.
- For this purpose, VEB of the Russian Federation within the framework of a syndicate with banks realizes lending for considerable sums, the size of which reaches 3 billion rubles. Such projects will contribute to the modernization of the existing infrastructure of the housing and utilities sector and prepare new infrastructure for future housing development projects. The main thing in this process is to provide a clear mechanism for the implementation of infrastructure projects and approve it by law," the expert added.
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