The work of state institutions that have to provide affordable housing for Ukrainians, in particular for privileged categories, was the topic for discussion at a meeting of the Government members chaired by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Among those present were Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Yulia Laputina, Minister of Defense Andrii Taran, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

Representatives of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine reported on the progress of implementation of projects of the State Fund for the Promotion of Youth Housing Construction (State Youth Housing). In particular, within the program "Accommodation for Internally Displaced Persons", funded by the Government of Germany through KfW, the first stage of selection of borrowers has already been carried out and 150 candidates from among the registered in the project have been determined. In total, a EUR 25.5 million grant was provided by the German Government through KfW to finance this program.

The Ministry of Finance, for its part, reported that there are currently two main programs of affordable mortgage lending in Ukraine: "Affordable Mortgage" at 7% and the financial leasing program at 5%. Representatives of the Ministry also noted that the process of merging the State Mortgage Institution and the Ukrainian Financial Housing Company is underway. Upon completion of the relevant process, the issuance of government bonds in the amount of UAH 20 billion is envisaged. This will allow to intensify the process of mortgage lending in Ukraine.

The Prime Minister noted the effectiveness of the "Affordable Mortgage at 7%" program, which had been initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy this year. More than half a thousand families have already used it, and the total amount of loan agreements amounted to half a billion hryvnias.

"In total, presently thousands of families are participants in preferential housing programs. Our objective is to expand such programs at the maximum so that Ukrainians can improve their living conditions. This is especially true of citizens who lost their homes as a result of the war in the East, and other privileged categories of citizens. The expansion of the activities of the State Youth Housing and Ukrfinzhytlo is evidence that the issue of providing Ukrainians with housing on favorable terms is really a priority in the Government's work," stressed Denys Shmyhal.

On the outcomes of the meeting, the Prime Minister commissioned the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development to envisage in the draft state budget for 2022 the capital support for theSSFC State Fund for the Promotion of Youth Housing Construction on condition of equal involvement of external sources of funding.

The Ministry of Finance, in turn, must prepare and submit to the Cabinet of Ministers within two weeks decisions that will expand the terms of preferential mortgage and leasing programs. In particular, it concerns the expansion of the circle of their participants so that as many Ukrainians as possible can get their own homes.