OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2010. The first meeting of the newly commissioned by the Prime Minister working group on the complex issues of completion of unfinished housing and encourage consumers to purchase these items had place. The chairman of the working group is the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Tykhonov. He said the working group includes representatives of Ministry of Regional Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, State Mortgage Institution, National Bank, Sberbank, Ukreximbank and other banking institutions.

Viktor Tykhonov informed that the Ministry of Regional Development selected thirty-five unfinished housing units, the degree of completion of construction of which allows the completion of these items till the end of 2010.

"To complete these thirty-five items we need 625 million UAH. At the meeting of the working group, we reached a common agreement that provided support of the National Bank, state banks are ready to provide the appropriate amount for such loans at 10-12% per annum"- Viktor Tikhonov noticed. He added that, following the proposal of the National Bank, in a fast time a corresponding program will be developed that would include the provision of such loans and the mechanisms of return of these funds.

"I also appealed to the banking institutions not to look for the reason which makes unable to provide mortgages, but to look for opportunity and resources to be used as loans to individuals and developers to forward to the completion of unfinished housing units" – the Vice Prime Minister said.

The official also informed that today the Ministry of Finance is working on increasing the fund of mortgage institutions to two billion UAH. If this question is resolved without dragging, Viktor Tikhonov says, SMI can direct these funds to refinance banks that provide loans to complete construction of housing units.

Viktor Tykhonov predicts that this year in general in Ukraine more than eight million square meters of housing will be put into operation. For comparison, in 2009 the figure was 6.4 million square meters.