The editors of Business FM talked to those who at various times had experience of obtaining public housing or watched how colleagues received housing from the state on certain conditions
The government’s experiment with preferential mortgages for young officials made us remember that getting housing on special conditions since the Soviet Union was one of the main factors that motivated citizens to join the civil service and stay in it.
As for the current government initiative to subsidize mortgages to young officials, everything should work like this: funds for the first installment — 25% of the cost of housing, payments on the main debt and part of the interest on the purchase of 33 square meters to young civil servants will be transferred directly from the budget. But there are a lot of requirements for the participants of the program: age up to 35 years, length of service in the civil service for at least a year, experience of participation in the CBO or the presence of a state award, a certificate of honor or gratitude from the president or government encouragement, and so on. And there will be 90 such lucky people in total.
According to our interlocutors, it was difficult for young officials to receive benefits before. But the higher the rank, the more chances there are for housing on preferential terms or even free of charge. Oleg Sysuev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank, was mayor of Samara from 1991 to 1997, and then worked as Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation for a year.
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According to Sysuev, back in the late 1980s, he took up community service precisely with the expectation that this would help him get a home by joining a cooperative. The bet worked. And when he was invited to Moscow, they did everything for him at once:
Oleg Sysuev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank, “When I arrived in Moscow, I, like others who came with me to the government, were given very decent housing at that time, very decent. I think it’s Class A, without any delay. Although we had state dachas where we lived in Arkhangelsk, we got housing quite quickly, and, in fact, this was the main asset for many years.”
Those who held more modest positions had a harder time. Firstly, many people had to prove that they were entitled to a benefit, they also had to prove their own value to the civil service by deeds, recalls the current managing director of Ozon, and in the past, first adviser, and then Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Sergey Belyakov:
Sergey Belyakov, Managing Director of Ozon, “The issue of a specially created existing commission in the ministry was considered. She made a decision to satisfy the request for a subsidy or not to satisfy it and to what extent. Well, that is, it’s not just that since you are an employee of the ministry, you automatically get the right. It was necessary to confirm this right to receive this subsidy. There won’t be enough money for everyone anyway. First of all, it was necessary to confirm the need for housing, because if you have housing, then you just won’t be able to get a subsidy for the purchase of a second home. Your qualifications as a valuable employee, which makes such a measure of support necessary to keep you at work.”
There were other forms of housing provision: long-term rental with subsequent purchase at a non-market price and other types of subsidizing its acquisition. But Konstantin Kalachev, a political scientist and ex-vice mayor of Volgograd, admits that due to limited budget funds, other methods could have been used in the past:
Konstantin Kalachev, head of the “Political Expert Group”, “Probably, at one time, when certain city authorities were resolving issues with developers regarding land acquisition, it was possible to assume the allocation of a certain number of apartments for the needs of the city. But, as you well understand, now, especially when everything is viewed under a microscope, there is a risk of being accused of corrupt ties. Who will give out any apartments. Firstly, they need to be taken from somewhere, and secondly, how can they be distributed without attracting the attention of the relevant services?”
Legally, there is now a government initiative on preferential mortgages for young officials. And for the more experienced, the same proven legal tools work, Oleg Sysuev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-bank, is sure:
“As I know, the Office of the President is the main state developer, which, in fact, spends public money on housing construction, on the purchase of apartments in prestigious buildings, which are distributed in the same algorithm as it was before. That the big bosses get the best housing and so on, in order, down to the smallest ones.”
When the bond is in brick and concrete, it’s for centuries.
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