Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev reported recently that the number of Kazakhs seeking public housing has increased.
“In Kazakhstan, more than 300,000 people are standing in line for housing, over 100,000 of those [are part of a vulnerable population], 124,000 people are state employees and civil servants and 43,000 are orphans. And this queue continues to grow. Twenty-nine thousand apartments are planned to be built and purchased from developers in the framework of the Nurly Zhol programme. Of these, about 60 percent of the rental units will be commissioned in metropolitan cities: Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, Aktobe and 40 percent in the regional centres, single-industry towns, as well as in supportive rural areas,” said Sagintaev at a recent public meeting on the topic.
In the autumn of last year, 286,507 people were reported to be on the waiting list for housing from the municipal housing fund. Of these, 465 are disabled and veterans of World War II, 41,682 are children without parental care, 125,070 are from socially vulnerable segments of the population, 117,456 are state employees, civil servants, soldiers, persons holding public office and 1,834 people are citizens whose homes are in a state of emergency.
Sagintayev stated that the changes to the country’s public housing and development programme came at the urging of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“Under the programme, priority is given to flats with small areas. The area of one-room apartments will be about 33 square metres. Two-bedroom apartments will be at least 45 square metres; three-bedroom flats will be at least 62 square metres. The average monthly payment for a lease-purchase apartment of 50 square metres will not exceed 56 thousand tenge (US$302), and rent without purchase will be no more than 28 thousand tenge ($US151),” he explained.
The deputy prime minister also stated that priority in the allocation of the apartments will be given to large families and single-parent families, families with disabled children, repatriates, civil servants and employees of state-financed organisations. At the same time, 50 percent of the housing will be distributed to young families up to 35 years of age and married for at least three years.
