MINSK, 24 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian government invites all banks to engage in mortgage lending, Belarus Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Kukharev told journalists as he visited OAO Keramin on 24 April, BelTA has learned.
“There are no restrictions in this regard, we invite all banks to get involved in this work [mortgage lending]. We have already negotiated with all banks and they are looking into possible approaches. By the way, banks took an active part in drafting the relevant decree, their proposals were also taken into account. I believe that the work in this direction will be continues,” Vladimir Kukharev said.
He noted that the decree “On mortgage lending” is an important regulatory document. “We have put a lot of effort into this document and drafted it relying on our law on mortgage and best practices of other countries, addressing all issues we had faced before. We hope that this decree will offer consumers more opportunities and new tools to purchase housing,” the deputy prime minister said. “We are currently drawing up another important regulatory document – a decree on housing savings. We believe that mortgage lending and housing savings are those mechanisms that will open up more opportunities to buy housing,” he added.
The roadmap for implementation of the decree on mortgage is also in the works. “We are currently preparing a number of amendments to several regulatory documents and a resolution of the Council of Ministers regulating the procedure for introducing these lending mechanisms. We are working in cooperation with banks which also contribute to making this tool affordable and in demand,” Vladimir Kukharev said.
He also pointed out that perfecting this mechanism requires some time. “People need time to study all opportunities and banks need time to finalize the details. We think it will take a 1-1.5 years. We should also understand that this tool will work only if there is an adequate housing market. This is why plans are in place to build four million square meters of housing this year and no less next year,” the deputy prime minister noted.
According to Vladimir Kukharev, when purchasing housing, people should have a wide choice as everyone has different needs and capabilities. “We have set the Belarusian construction industry a task to build housing of various types, small and large, fully-finished apartments or those with a base-build concept,” he added.
