The privatization of housing owned by municipalities began in 1991 when the Federal Law "On the Privatization of Housing in the Russian Federation" came into force. It was supposed that it would be completed by 2007, but this did not happen, so the law had to be extended three more times.
Instruction manual
1
The first time the privatization law was extended from January 1, 2007 to March 1, 2010, but this did not become an incentive for citizens to transfer the apartments in which they live under a social contract of employment to private ownership. Therefore, Dmitry Medvedev, when he was President of the Russian Federation, signed a decree on the extension of privatization until March 1, 2013, after which the next and, as promised, final deadline for privatization was once again extended until March 1, 2015.
2
From this date, the right to free privatization of municipal housing will remain only for certain categories of citizens, including the poor, those who are in the queue for their receipt and pupils of orphanages and children left without parental care. These categories of citizens will be able, if they wish, to become owners of apartments for free within one year after they receive them from the municipality. All others who decide to become owners of such housing will purchase it at market value.
3
Analyzing the situation with housing services and tariffs, it is clear that the government’s three-fold extension of the privatization period was not at all aimed at providing citizens with expensive real estate. The change in the status of housing has allowed shifting the care of maintaining apartment buildings to the shoulders and wallets of apartment owners, significantly reducing this expense item in municipal budgets. Now all responsibilities not only for the maintenance of their own apartments, but also for the maintenance and maintenance of common areas, as well as the overhaul of houses, are assigned to the "happy" homeowners.
4
In addition, in the future, the government is going to “tie” property tax not to the inventory value of apartments, as it is today, but to the estimated one, which, as practice has shown, is mercilessly overstated, significantly exceeding the market one. This is a deterrent for those who have not yet privatized their apartments and seem to be in no hurry to do so. And such, as experts say, about 25% of the total number of apartment owners remain.
5
With the completion of privatization, many families queuing for housing associate the hope that it will now move faster. Municipalities were not very willing to build new housing on social programs, as it was immediately privatized by the residents who moved in. The result was an increase in the total number of waiting lists to 3 million, and this was the reason that the average waiting period for a new apartment in Moscow is 21 years, and in St. Petersburg the waiting list has to wait as long as 25 years.
