Free Land Plots For Young Families

2023 Author: Douglas Hoggarth | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-30 20:55

Georges Seurat. Pushing in the Poles circa. 1882

According to the amendments made to the legislation, families raising three or more children have the full right to receive a land plot free of charge, on which they can later build their own residential building.

Thus, the government is trying to find a new way out of the housing crisis, when many Russian young families cannot afford to buy their own apartment, and the state program for subsidizing the purchase of real estate does not cope with such a global task.

However, will the newly adopted law be able to help solve the “housing problem” that is acute for many young families? As you know, until June 17 of this year, in many Russian regions, in particular in St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl region, Sakhalin, Ivanovo region, Irkutsk region, Kuzbass and some other regions, there were already similar programs to support young families. The new law only approved the decision of the authorities at the all-Russian level.

If we consider the implementation of local regional programs on the provision of land plots to large families before the adoption of the new law, the picture will not turn out too rosy. So, in the Kemerovo region, where the program of providing land plots to large families has existed since 2002, during this time only 200 families with three or more children received land. In the Ivanovo region, this program was adopted not so long ago and the governor only promises to allocate land plots to 800 young large families in 2011.

The bill has some features that can seriously hinder its successful implementation.

In the Leningrad region in 2009 land plots were received by only 106 families out of 11 thousand, registered as needing to improve their living conditions. And in 2010, only 450 land plots were allocated in the Leningrad Region for all privileged categories of citizens, which, in addition to young families with three children, also include disabled people, military personnel and veterans.

As you can see, the implementation of local programs for the provision of land to young families in the regions went, to put it mildly, not too fast, and it is not yet known whether the new law will be able to change this trend. But the bill itself has some features that can seriously hinder its successful implementation.

So, the main nuance - "the land plot is provided without bidding and preliminary approval of the location of objects that are in state or municipal ownership." The fact that the site is provided without bidding is understandable and quite fair, it is a priori allocated free of charge. But "without prior agreement on the location" in practice can mean that the plot of land allocated to a young family is not just far from the central districts of the city, but very far even from the suburbs.

The law is modestly silent about the size of the plots allocated for individual construction.

Especially this situation may affect residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the neighborhoods of cities have long been built up and inhabited, so, for example, in Moscow at the present time, citizens who register wishing to purchase a dacha are immediately informed that they are closer than 100 kilometers from The Moscow Ring Road is nothing and cannot be. Where, in this case, the land plots allocated to large families will be located is difficult even to imagine.

Georgy Nyssa. Collective farm "Zagorie". 1959

The law is also modestly silent about the size of plots allocated for individual construction - all the nuances, minimum and maximum sizes of plots for large families will be established separately by each constituent entity of the Russian Federation. For example, in the Ivanovo region, a family can be allocated a plot of 10 to 15 acres.

The procedure for the issue of land, the timing of obtaining, the necessary documents - all this rests on the shoulders (and conscience) of the local authorities.

Earlier, before June 17, local programs for providing young families with land plots had many restrictions. In particular, in the Chelyabinsk Region, only low-income families registered as in need of better housing conditions could apply for free land. That is, far from all families with three or more children, as provided by the Federal Law, could apply for a free land plot, but only those recognized by the local authorities as poor. In the Irkutsk Region, only families who are in line for an apartment and are also classified as poor can get a land plot. In some other regions it is stipulated that only a family in which the third child was born after January 1, 2011 can receive a land plot, while there are no such restrictions in the Federal Law.

If earlier the number of categories of young families entitled to receive a plot of land without payment was most often limited by local laws, this did not help to accelerate the process of granting a land plot. Now, when the Federal Law has significantly increased the number of citizens entitled to free land, the queues of applicants for land will only increase.

Land received in possession is not yet housing. A young family usually does not have the funds to build a house.

So, only in the Chelyabinsk region in order to comply with the law will require at least 25 thousand land plots. In total, in Russia, according to statistics, more than 1.3 million families are raising three children.

Will free land become a real alternative to your own apartment?

Even if we consider the most optimistic option - a family of five received a free land plot, the problems do not end there. Most likely, this land will be allocated from the fund of abandoned garden partnerships, possibly empty agricultural land, so that the land plot provided to the young family will not be in the best condition and will require significant investments.

In addition, for example, a free piece of land located on the territory of a garden partnership may actually turn out to be not free at all - you will still have to pay a certain amount of money for registering a plot, as well as monthly pay set amounts for the partnership's internal arrangement - road construction, fencing, arrangement of water intakes and repair of power lines. As a result, a fairly round amount can run up - from 50 thousand rubles, depending on the partnership.

Vladimir Shestov. Village. 1993

And most importantly, the land received in possession is not yet housing at all. And a young family usually does not have the funds to build their own house. The average bank is more reluctant to issue loans for the construction of a private house than for the purchase of ready-made housing. Indeed, in the case of a mortgage loan for the purchase of an apartment, the property itself can act as a pledge. In the case of obtaining a loan for the construction of an individual building, only the land plot itself can become a collateral, the cost of which, of course, is lower than the price of real estate and the amount of credit required for construction.

The state program "Affordable housing for a young family" provides for subsidies both for the purchase of housing and for the construction of a house, but for families with children, this state aid compensates only 35% of the value of the property. In addition, 35% of the legal number of square meters for each family member - 18 square meters for each. Building a house with an area of only 90 square meters (this is how much the state allocates for a family of 5 people) is not very profitable. By the most conservative estimates, using the cheapest materials, taking into account that most of the construction work will be done independently, the construction of a house of about 100 square meters will cost the family at least 2 million rubles, excluding communications and interior decoration. And if the state compensates 35% of this amount, there is still a need to find the remaining 1.3 million rubles somewhere.

It remains either to build a house for several years, saving on the essentials and purchasing building materials in small parts, or still turn to the services of a bank and take out a mortgage.

As a result, a rather sad conclusion can be drawn - the state program providing for the free provision of land plots to families with three children, even if it is implemented in all regions and becomes a reality, will still not be able to finally solve the “housing issue” for most families. And the point is not even that very many families simply do not want to move to live far out of town and do not have their own car to drive to work every day to “distant lands”, but that there are still alternatives to a mortgage loan. no.