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- Credit qualification: The Central Bank proposes to ban unscrupulous developers from working with loans
Credit qualification: The Central Bank proposes to ban unscrupulous developers from working with loans
The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, approved the initiative to form a special group that will look for solutions to the situation with affected borrowers in the field of individual housing construction (IHS). In addition, she made a proposal to introduce certain requirements for developers using funds received through lending. How quickly such restrictions can be implemented in practice, whether they will affect the cost of primary housing, as well as how the state can prevent the appearance of problematic developers in advance — in the Izvestia article.
Protection of funds
The head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, supported the idea of creating a working group that will deal with the problem of defrauded borrowers in the field of residential housing. It should include representatives of banks, the government and the regulator.
In addition, she proposed to discuss the requirements for developers together with the Russian Ministry of Construction. It's about who can work in this market at all. In her opinion, if there are unscrupulous companies, you need to think about how to limit their activities, for example, not to allow them to work with credit money.
The Russian Ministry of Construction is already working to better protect the money of people who build private homes, the ministry's press service told Izvestia. Since March 1, 2025, Law No. 186-FZ of July 22, 2024 has been in force. He introduced the use of escrow accounts in construction under contract agreements and defined the rules of work between the customer and the contractor. Due to this, citizens' funds remain protected during construction.
The Digital Residential Housing Construction service hosts about 45,2 thousand projects from more than 10,8 thousand contractors, the Ministry of Construction said. Of these, 43.4 thousand projects from 7 thousand companies can already be used with escrow. As of March 20, 2026, under Law No. 186-FZ, 3,763 contractors disclosed data on 24,158 contracts, of which 9,832 have already been completed.
It is proposed to change legislation in this area after an additional analysis of how Law No. 186-FZ works, taking into account the interests of both customers and contractors.
The residential housing market operates according to two schemes — with and without escrow, while escrow, introduced on March 1 last year, better protects buyers' money and increases the chance of completion, said Alexey Voylukov, MBA professor of business practice in digital Finance at the Presidential Academy. Banks are already effectively restricting access to loans for unreliable companies, so the new measures will only strengthen existing practices and will not affect everyone.
According to him, this will have almost no effect on prices, as the measure concerns a limited number of developers. At the same time, residential housing accounts for about 60% of housing starts in 2025, but mortgages in this segment fell by about 70% by 2024, and its share decreased from about 13% to about 5%. To reduce risks, it is important to control developers and prevent companies with a bad reputation from entering the market.
Implementation of measures
If necessary, changes to laws can also take place in an expedited manner, since initiatives aimed at protecting citizens are usually promptly adopted and approved, Ivan Abramov, first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, told Izvestia.
— It is possible to prevent problematic projects in advance due to more careful control at the regional and municipal levels, — he believes. — In small towns, they usually know all the developers well and understand who they can trust, unlike in large megacities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, where it is more difficult to do this.
The initiative of the Bank of Russia to restrict access to credit facilities by unscrupulous developers looks timely against the background of problems with the timing of commissioning of residential housing facilities, Yulia Kovalenko, PhD in Economics, Deputy head of the Higher School of Economics of Moscow Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, told Izvestia. At the same time, there is a risk of bankruptcy of weak companies, which can lead to construction delays and difficulties for citizens.
Yulia Kovalenko stressed that in order to identify unreliable developers, it is necessary to regularly conduct financial analysis and take a more rigorous approach to the accreditation of facilities, and if the indicators deteriorate, companies should optimize internal processes, while banks should strengthen protective measures, including additional insurance.
Unified system
It is important to strengthen the verification of developers by banks when opening project financing and limit access to credit facilities for companies with a negative history, Natalia Bogomolova, director of financial institutions ratings at the NRA rating service, told Izvestia.
In her opinion, the creation of a unified digital monitoring system will also be an effective measure, which will allow identifying risks at an early stage, for example, delays in construction for more than 3-6 months, frequent changes of contractors or an increase in legal claims against the developer.
Access to borrowed funds remains one of the most important factors for businesses in almost all areas, including the residential housing market, Andrei Girinsky, associate professor at the RUDN University Faculty of Economics, told Izvestia.
— Restrictions on the use of credit resources can be an effective way to restructure this segment, — he noted, — Now it is appropriate to talk about developing an approach to market recovery based on financing mechanisms. At the same time, the timing of the implementation of such measures will depend on a number of conditions, including the testing period and expected results.
Andrey Girinsky stressed that the prevention of violations and unfair practices plays an important role. Attention should be paid to the transparency of the ownership structure of companies and the procedure for their creation. It is necessary to ensure clarity in the construction plans and allocation of resources. At the same time, according to him, it is important to maintain a balance: excessively harsh measures can reduce interest in the market and lead to higher housing prices.
For companies that comply with the requirements, such changes can become an incentive to increase transparency and develop corporate responsibility, while developers with limited resources can shift part of the costs to buyers, which can lead to higher prices, Peter Shcherbachenko, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
"The creation of an interdepartmental working group to protect defrauded shareholders in the residential housing segment is a timely measure that will allow us to develop a set of solutions, including compensation, partial repayment of the principal debt and other forms of support," he said.
Also, in his opinion, it is worth considering the idea of forming a register of reliable developers of low-rise housing, said Petr Shcherbachenko. Choosing a contractor for the construction of a private house remains a difficult task, as there is a risk of encountering unprofessional or unscrupulous companies, explained Petr Shcherbachenko. It is important to take into account the experience of the developer, the duration of his work and the number of completed projects, as well as pay attention to too low prices, which may be a risk signal.
Izvestia sent a request to the Central Bank, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
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