ASTANA – The Housing Construction Bank of Kazakhstan (HCBK), which is a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, has developed a new anti-crisis programme, Svoi Dom (“Own House”), until 2020 to provide depositors with affordable housing, reported Zakon.kz on Jan. 26. It promises to provide 350,000 square metres of affordable housing in 2016 and a total 1.5 million square metres by 2020.
The new programme has three main directions: cooperation with the local authorities, public and private partnerships as well as cooperation with commercial banks. At the moment, the bank is negotiating with local government bodies, second-tier banks and property developers.
The main advantages of the programme are full priority to depositors of HCBK, the low price per square metre, independence from exchange rates and the absence of special conditions for the acquisition of property. Any client of the bank can take part in the programme, but depositors who are not owning any property are in priority and receive the right to purchase an apartment first. There is also another state programme of regional development until 2020, which was launched earlier. The difference is that Svoi Dom has not required registration in the cities of Almaty and Astana for the last two years. Another feature of the new programme is that people are able to select a property developer and the house project through an open vote. The programme will be financed by the bank’s equity.
At the moment, average price of the housing within the programme is about 180,000 tenge (US$490.86) per square metre. The annual interest rate of the loan is between 5 to 10 percent.
According to the source, the anti-crisis programme of the bank will be an excellent addition to the state programme of development of regions until 2020 because depositors of HCBK will get an alternative way to buy housing at affordable prices.
