Housing at 5% for Health Workers: the First Agreement on Cooperation with the Ministry of Health Signed

On November 16, 2021, PrJSC "Ukrainian financial housing company" and the Ministry of Health have signed an agreement in the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine to implement the mechanism of housing for health workers in Ukraine on the terms of financial leasing.

"Today the first agreement was signed between the Ukrainian financial housing company and the Ministry of Health, which will allow health workers, who receive their salaries from the budget, to buy housing in leasing at 5%. This is only the first step. The Ministry of Finance will initiate the signing of such agreements with all departments, so that all public sector workers - doctors, military personnel, police officers, teachers, who receive wages below the market level - will be able to buy housing on concessional terms. In the short term it is planned to buy 12 thousand apartments for their further transfer to financial leasing, "- said Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko.

At the initiative of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance continues to introduce financial instruments to provide Ukrainian citizens with housing. In particular, at the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance created PrJSC "Ukrainian financial housing company". One of the tasks of the Ukrainian financial housing company is the implementation of additional mortgage products for employees of the public sector on the terms of financial leasing at 5%.

"In addition to increasing the level of wages, which will already take place on January 1, 2022, we also allow medics to confidently invest in housing. The signing of this document is an opportunity for our doctors and nurses to confidently plan their future in Ukraine. I am convinced that the implementation of this program will be well-received by families of health workers. We are talking about the possibility of taking housing in leasing and, paying the amount of normal rent, after some time to get the right of ownership of housing", - said Health Minister Viktor Liashko.

The terms of the program:

• the interest rate on the leasing program - 5% per annum;
• advance payment on the leasing transaction - 0%;
• term of the transaction - up to 20 years.

The most important advantage of the program is a fixed rate for the duration of the contract, which does not depend on external circumstances.

Citizens of Ukraine, who receive a salary at the expense of the state budget or local budgets, as well as people, whose information is included in the Unified Information Database on Internally Displaced Persons can buy housing under the program. One of the conditions is to work at the current place for at least 6 months.

Additional requirements:
- Limitation on the maximum average monthly family income based on the average monthly wage in the region;
- Applicant's family members do not own real homes (except located in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) or the family needs to improve living conditions (the area of real estate owned is less than 20 sq. m. per family member).

It is important to note that the family under the program is a husband, wife, their minor children.

Requirements for housing:
- the age of the housing is up to 20 years or its reconstruction (major repairs) carried out not earlier than ten years before the conclusion of the financial leasing agreement;
- normative housing area - up to 21 sq.m. per one family member, for a family of one or two persons - it is 52.5 sq.m;
- normative cost of one square meter of the apartment that can be purchased depends on the cost of housing construction, determined by the Ministry of Regional Development, multiplied by the multiplying factor depending on the locality (for example, today for Kyiv and nearby settlements (up to 30 km from the city) it amounts to almost 30 thousand UAH).

Housing can be obtained through the body providing housing, which can be the relevant executive authority.

In addition to the formation of an effective state policy to provide citizens with housing, the Ministry of Finance sees other global tasks: the promotion of competition among providers of financial services, which will affect the reduction of interest rates, social and economic stability of the country.