20 May 2004 11:00
Russian minister concedes housing in Moscow unaffordable to servicemen
[Presenter] President Putin has signed a decree defining and approving the composition of the new Russian government.
[Passage omitted.] NTV political correspondent Vladimir Kondratyev, reporting live from the White House [Russian
government HQ], has the details. [Passage omitted]
[Correspondent] One of the issues discussed at the government meeting today that naturally attracted the most
attention was the mortgage and savings scheme for servicemen. [Passage omitted]
Incidentally, [Prime Minister Mikhail] Fradkov said that using the traditional system, the problem [of provision of
housing for servicemen] could only be solved in 40 years. And this is where the savings-and-mortgage scheme, which got
[President Vladimir] Putin's blessing in March this year, comes in.
Every serviceman, irrespective of his rank and position, will receive in his account a sum of about R37,000 a year
[1,275 dollars at the current exchange rate], which will be index-linked. After three years, he will be able to conclude
a mortgage agreement with any bank, and so after three years he will enter into possession of a flat of his own.
[Economic Development and Trade] Minister [German] Gref, who delivered a report on the issue, even said that any
serviceman - say, a lieutenant who will in theory be the owner of a flat - will be able to let it, thus increasing his
income to repay for the flat later.
So the plan is that after about 20 years every serviceman can obtain a 54-square-metre flat costing R650,000. It is
up to the servicemen to decide if this good enough or not.
So today Gref was asked: We know that prices in Moscow and St Petersburg are very high, just under 2,000 [dollars per
square metre] in Moscow and slightly less in St Petersburg, which means that servicemen will have to serve 50 to 70
years to obtain a flat there. Gref sensibly replied that not everyone could afford to live in Moscow. Let us hear what
the minister said.
[Gref] In no country in the world are commitments of this kind based on the highest market price. It would just be
impractical. Clearly, there will never be enough money if we proceed from the price of 1,000 dollars per square metre.
In that case, all our servicemen would end up living around Red Square. I'll be frank with you - it is also an
incentive to encourage [servicemen] to settle evenly throughout Russia. This is the normal average price. Of course a
serviceman cannot afford to buy a flat near the Kremlin - but he can afford one in the Moscow suburbs.
[Presenter] Journalists laughed a bit at the idea of a flat in Moscow's suburbs at this price, yet Gref argued
and tried to prove it was possible.
Gref said the bill had been drafted in record time, just six weeks, and now he is only asking the government for
three days to fine-tune it, after which the bill will be submitted to the [State] Duma.
[NTV Mir] |
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