Putin calls for support to developers, buyers of housing

MOSCOW, Feb 1 (PRIME) -- Federal and municipal authorities must provide support to developers and people who plan to buy housing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Kirov Region’s Governor Nikita Belykh on Monday.

“It is a very important issue. We must promote sales of this housing at the federal and the regional level: to help constructors to sell and people to buy,” Putin said.

If Russian authorities implement measures connected with subsidizing mortgage loans, the purchasing power of the population will increase and the market for housing will gain momentum, Belyukh said.

Earlier Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the government will decide on new steps to support mortgage lending instead of the current reduced-rate mortgage program, which will be in force until April, by the end of February.

In 2015, banks gave 211,000 mortgage loans for more than 370 billion rubles, which let people buy 10 million square meters of housing and the government subsidized 2.1 billion rubles. This year, the amount of interest rate subsidies for the loans which were given stands at 16 billion rubles, Siluanov said.

(75.1723 rubles – U.S. $1)

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