I. Metshin about the first house on the “green standards”: “Previously we only heard of such things abroad”

(KZN.RU, January 30, Alsu Safina). Despite some difficulties, the past year proved to be a creative city for the construction industry, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, at today's staff meeting. According to Azat Nigmatzyanov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee on urban policy, 925,073 square meters of housing were built in the capital of Tatarstan since the beginning of 2016.

In his report, Azat Nigmatzyanov noted that the city's first residential property, fully certified to international environmental standards BREEAM, was put into operation last year in the RC “Sovremennik”.

“This house is built from eco-friendly materials, has a high energy efficiency through the use of air recovery systems, active light sensor and the widespread use of energy-saving devices”, explained A. Nigmatzyagnov. “The house is provided with higher rates of comfort in terms of sound insulation, the availability of natural light and ergonomic architecture solutions. According to the developer, the city residents were satisfied with the environmental status of the house, and sale of apartments in it was completed in a short time, despite the high price”.

He noted that now the two developers implement BREEAM standards at their facilities.

“We used to hear about the concept of “green standard” only abroad and thought it was very far from us. And now, the first house was put into operation. Moreover, the apartment in a residential building sold for quite a high price like hot cakes. This suggests that people does not only perceive innovation, but also know how to count and they want to live in a comfortable, ecologically clean house”, said Ilsur Metshin. “Thanks to our builders for they catch this trend”.

The Mayor commented on the report's data showing that the volume of new housing increased by 40% compared with the previous decade for the last 10 years: from 6 million square meters to 8.48 million square meters, “The construction industry is a litmus test. When a person who understands the urban economy, comes to a different region and sees how many tower cranes there are and how hard they work, he realizes if the city is developing or not”, said I. Metshin.

He marked that the introduction of social infrastructure shows that the city is not just alive and growing: there is a complex construction, and the quality of commissioned housing has changed a lot.

According to the head of the city, it is the great merit of Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan, that no national program was curtailed. The State Housing Fund of the RT under the President is making a great contribution to the construction of housing. For example, 80 thousand 185 square meters of housing (9 houses on 1529 apartments) was built last year by the SHF program.