I. Metshin: “We need to introduce a single standard for Kazan in the interests of builders and shareholders”

(KZN.RU, February 12, Alsu Safina). It is necessary to create a unified standard for the implementation of technical control and maintenance of problematic objects in the interests of builders, shareholders, and investors in Kazan. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, expressed this opinion today on the Business Monday. The Department of Capital Construction and Reconstruction of the city will deal with this on a contractual basis.

Speaking with the report, Azat Nigmatzyanov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, reminded that in connection with the need to address the issue of defrauded shareholders and prevent the repetition of the situation in the market for shared construction, the Kazan Department of Capital Construction was charged with monitoring the construction and delivering of share construction facilities.

“The Department of Capital Construction plans to carry out technical control and maintenance of all shared construction sites in addition to operational work on the resumption and completion of construction of problematic facilities”, said the speaker. “This will allow having objective, reliable information on the progress of work at sites and organizational and technical decisions taken by developers in real time. It will be possible to coordinate the actions of the developers when the problems appear”.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, instructed the first deputy head of the Executive Committee together with the Legal Department to prepare a corresponding decision. “It is not clear which companies are licensed. And when we arrive at the facilities, it turns out that there was no relevant expertise, technical supervision, construction supervision, etc.”, said the head of the city. “It is in the interests of the builders themselves, shareholders, and investors that this single standard for Kazan should be introduced. I ask you to prepare the necessary proposals, we will fix this by a tripartite decision”.

Now, the number of really needy citizens in problematic objects, whose share is just over 10% of the total number of objects under construction with the involvement of equity holders, is 13.6%. Therefore, just 1% of equity holders is badly needed citizens in the total amount of shared construction.

Azat Nigmatzyanov drew attention to the fact that the federal center proposes to abandon the shared construction and switch to project financing with the involvement of credit resources. It is assumed that the transition will be phased in over 3 years. “If we project a possible ban of shared construction in Kazan, it turns out that developers will be forced to apply for loans in the amount of 65 billion rubles. This is the amount that is currently gathered from citizens and is available”, noted the reporter. “All the latest proposed measures to tighten federal legislation are held under the slogan of protecting defrauded shareholders. But if you look closely, the main benefits of these changes go to the banks. But the question arises: are banks ready to lend developers such amounts?” said the first deputy head of the Executive Committee.

According to him, the city will lose about a quarter of its gross product in case of a complete halt of shared construction, as well as the price of housing will increase, more than 40 thousand builders will be unemployed. “Equally there is a desire to solve existing problems and maintain a balance in the housing market”, marked A. Nigmatzyanov.

The Mayor noted that this is a difficult question. “I share the concerns you expressed. The legislator wants to solve the problem of defrauded shareholders for the last time. However, unfortunately, the mechanism for implementing construction investment projects can seriously jeopardize the volume of the housing. No one needs that”, said the Mayor. “You are right about employment because one builder provides work for 10 other specialists”. “I think that we should actively participate in the discussion of this topic at all levels. Let's sign the appropriate appeal so that our position of the millionth city, which is the leader in construction in the Volga region and in many respects in the Russian Federation, was heard”, urged Ilsur Metshin.

Along with this, the Mayor drew attention to the need for a legislative initiative to raise funds collected in the SRO to address the problems of defrauded shareholders. Azat Nigmatzyanov said that there are 2.2 billion rubles in the accounts of four SROs operating in our republic as of January 2018. The head of the city suggested discussing this issue jointly with the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing of the RT, builders, SROs, and deputies of the State Duma of the RF. “Any federal law is not a constitution, this is the reason why lawmaking and legislative initiatives of deputies exist”, said I. Metshin. “Let's go with the legislative initiative so that at least some percentage will be involved in the process. We trying to find money to finish the construction, and there are 2.2 billion in the funds. It's not such a quick decision but we still need to discuss it”.