Dear readers,

One of the priority areas identified by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is the introduction of a special mechanism to support individual housing construction.
Putin in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is to introduce a special mechanism to support individual housing construction and ensure its widespread application (subparagraph 2 of the list of instructions dated 02.05.2021).

Construction of all kinds, including low-rise mass construction, is an extremely complex process involving many participants, directly or indirectly. Consequently, the obstacles to the construction process are of very different origins.

 One of the reasons that hinder the provision of affordable low-rise housing to Russians is the lack of a clear policy by the authorities regarding the technological support of the construction process. Officials are not yet clear which technologies are to be preferred, as a result, some pilot projects are implemented, but there is no mass construction.

It is not difficult to understand that the choice of construction technology depends on what the desired output is. This raises the question: what kind of houses are needed in Russia? Obviously, a low-rise production house should be cheap, quick to build (i.e. consisting of lightweight structures), certainly warm and, finally, aesthetically appealing, and taking into account the taste preferences of potential consumers. In addition, the houses need to be durable and, if demolished, recyclable without damaging the environment. Therefore, appropriate technologies should be chosen for mass high-rise construction in Russia. But the advantages of a particular technology are easiest to evaluate in an open competition among manufacturers. In Europe, such competitions are held in the form of cottage developments. Usually, events follow the following pattern: the city administration allocates a vacant area outside of the existing housing estate. Then, on that land, various companies use their own technology to build low-rise housing, and the end consumer votes with his or her wallet. Similar schemes are regularly held in Germany, Austria and Finland.

In fact, state support of individual housing construction is implemented as a tool to solve the problems of privileged and certain groups of the population, who use inefficient and expensive technologies in construction. The state-funded individual housing construction projects that are put into operation do not always meet modern requirements and the costs incurred. Using foreign experience, in order to develop individual low-rise housing construction, state support should be provided for the introduction of modern construction technologies that meet the parameters of financial affordability of construction, comfort, durability, environmental friendliness, energy efficiency, etc.

The implementation of effective development of low-rise individual construction involves organizing annual sales exhibitions to form offers for individual customers, implementing state programmes of individual low-rise construction for certain categories of people (victims of natural disasters, man-made accidents, civil servants and municipal employees, etc.), and forming a competitive market for developers' offers within the above-mentioned criteria.

The implementation of the proposed project for the development of individual low-rise construction in Russia implies the participation of both federal, regional and local authorities as well as non-state organizations (construction, banking, etc.) in its implementation.

Affordable low-rise housing has a prominent role to play in this process. It is expected that the development of the low-rise suburban housing sector will help to solve a whole range of housing problems in the regions and thereby create the prerequisites for their development.

However, the pace of low-rise construction is still far from what is desirable. Why is this happening? What barriers stand in the way of building mass low-rise housing? These and other problems will be discussed in this issue of the magazine.

Sincerely,
Peter Grabovy,
Editor-in-Chief

Published: 2021-09-30

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