Real estate loans require growth in housing construction in Russia

The development of real estate loans in Russia would require an increase inthe volume of housing construction by twofold to 7-8m sq. m a year. StateConstruction Committee Chairman Anvar Shamuzafarov voiced this opinion atthe Second Baykal Economic Forum in Irkutsk. He underlined that thedevelopment of real estate loans was currently hindered by the low volumeof new housing construction. Thus, according to the Construction Committeehead, 1.5% of the Russian residents are provided with new housing everyyear. Shamuzafarov remarked that given the present rather strict terms of realestate loans, only 4.7% of the residents of Russia could afford such a loannow. He pointed out that 67.7% of the entire housing stock of Russiabelonged to private owners as of now. The estimated current value of theRussian housing stock is $200bn. .