Contractual subtleties: escrow accounts will be extended to the construction of private houses with the help of matkapital

The Government has extended the escrow account mechanism to the erection of private houses with the use of matkapital. This was announced by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, at a meeting with deputy prime ministers. How it will affect the number of private houses construction and what criteria a company should meet to fulfill such an order, "Izvestia" investigated.

Requirements to the contractor

The new mechanism creates a guaranteed protection of invested funds of citizens during the construction period, reported "Izvestia" in the press service of the Ministry of Construction. Among other things, the innovation will level the risks of loss of funds in case contracting organizations fail to fulfill their obligations or fail to complete the construction of individual houses. This is expected to reduce the number of citizens affected by unscrupulous contracting organizations.

"Construction of houses will be carried out by contractors, including with the use of house kits, on land plots owned or leased by citizens", - specified in the department.

Photo: Izvestia/Anna Selina

Contractors will place in the unified information system of housing construction information about themselves, projects of individual houses, which are built by contractors, the authorized bank in which the customer opens an escrow account, if the contractor attracted funds of the target loan for the construction of individual houses. The system will also contain data on concluded and executed construction contracts. Thanks to this will be formed an objective business reputation, allowing the customer to make an informed choice of construction company through the disclosure and public availability of this information, according to the Ministry.

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Not all companies will be able to provide relevant services, Albert Koroev, Head of the Expert Department of "BKS World of Investments", noted in a conversation with "Izvestia". In particular, the contractor must register in the information system of housing construction and disclose, among other things, information about the legal entity or individual entrepreneur, including data on the name, location, website and e-mail, as well as on the projects of residential buildings that it can build, including the estimated cost and approximate terms of construction of objects.

- Among the requirements that banks can find today, also the registration of the business more than two years ago, plus experience in the construction of residential buildings in the number of at least five built housing projects or one apartment building in the last year. In addition, it is necessary to have no restrictions, property arrests, lawsuits, overdue debts.

Photo: TASS/Alexander Artemenkov

In the moment, according to the expert, the growth in the number of houses built is not obvious, but in the long term these initiatives will benefit the market.

Requirements to the developer for participation in the escrow account scheme usually include a history of construction projects, absence of significant delays in the past in commissioning of facilities by the developer's group. There are also usually requirements for the size of the project (for example, the total area of projects realized over three years must exceed the area of the current project), Vasily Tanurkov, director of the corporate ratings group at ACRA, said in a conversation with Izvestia.

- Some banks may have additional requirements for the availability of consolidated statements of the developer's group. Probably, not all companies will be able to meet these requirements, which may adversely affect the volume of transactions for the purchase of housing with the use of matkapital in the segment of housing construction. At the same time, since the matkapital can be used to buy ready-made housing, it is likely to increase the share of sales of ready-made houses with the use of matkapital, - says the expert.

Photo: Izvestia/Mitriy Korotayev

So far, according to Vasily Tanurkov, is not fully understood the scheme of using escrow accounts for housing development.

- Will it be necessary to register a legal entity for each separate object, which, obviously, will increase costs? In case there will be no separate legal entity for the project, there are issues of separation of buyers' funds on escrow accounts and the need for partial disclosure of escrow as individual objects are ready, - he said.

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The price of the issue

Dmitry Sergienko, Senior Director for Corporate Ratings at Expert RA, noted in his conversation with Izvestia.

- After the introduction of such a mechanism, the cost of building a private house will inevitably increase at least due to the introduction of bank support. Besides, not all developers meet rather strict criteria of banks, for example, by work experience, debt load, financial strength, - the expert is sure.

Accordingly, according to him, some developers will be cut off from this market. Therefore, from the point of view of preserving citizens' funds, of course, the mechanism is necessary, but to increase the volume of construction may be a deterrent.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

This initiative will naturally improve the situation, as well as all stimulating measures in the cooled market of suburban construction, said "Izvestia" the head of the construction company "House of Lazovsky" Maxim Lazovsky.

- However, it should be remembered that the maternity capital is a very limited amount. A house with a plot of land 20 km from the Moscow Ring Road with an area of 150 square meters costs from 15 million rubles. At the same time, the company must not infringe on the interests of children, take into account their shares and allow them to live in a high-quality house," he said.

Scaling of the escrow system to the housing estate market may have a twofold effect, Alexei Romantsov, Investment Director of "Samolet Dom", told "Izvestia".

- On the one hand, it will ensure the safety of buyers' investments, which is especially important, of course, for families with children. On the other hand, dependence on bank loans for the housing estate market may be more sensitive than for the MCD market. There are few system companies in this market, and especially at the initial stages there may be a significant slowdown in the work of contractors: most of the companies will not be able to ensure proper document flow as required by banks.

Photo: Izvestia/Anna Selina

Also, he said, the probability of an increase in the cost of the house increases, as the price will include the cost of covering interest on loans, the cost of auditors, hiring additional staff to ensure proper document flow. Taking these factors into account, there is an even greater increase in the cost of production along with an increase in the time of realization of each house. We do not expect an increase in construction volumes under such conditions.

A significant proportion of buyers of land plots for residential housing are families with children, noted in a conversation with "Izvestia" Managing Director of secondary and suburban real estate "Avito Real Estate" Sergei Eremkin.

- In many cases, at comparable costs, a family can afford more spacious housing outside the city compared to an apartment within it. The possibility of attracting matkapital for the construction of houses using escrow accounts will protect buyers from unscrupulous construction and increase transparency in the housing and communal housing market. This will have a positive impact on the confidence in the segment on the part of potential buyers, and will also contribute to the targeted use of funds, - says the expert.

Photo: Izvestia/Eduard Kornienko

It is unlikely that the demand for one's own house will change in the near future, Evgenia Murinets, a master's degree teacher at the Faculty of International Regional Studies and Regional Management of the IGSU of the Presidential Academy and a member of the Expert Council of the Russian Ministry of Construction for the formation of a comfortable urban environment, told Izvestia.

- It is possible that at the moment of the law start in March of this year there will be some decline in construction in this segment due to restrictions on the use of escrow accounts by developers who are engaged, so to speak, in piece-by-piece construction of houses, which are the majority in the market, and not entire villages. But this will be partially offset by the terms of the law, predetermining the ability to take a favorable mortgage only when using escrow accounts, - she believes.