Prices of residential property could grow by up to 20% after elections in 2019, according to the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine.
“The situation of 2018 will partially continue in 2019. Property prices in Ukraine will gradually increase. At the beginning of the year, there will not be a sharp increase in prices, but after the elections, the price of residential property would rise by up to 20%,” the confederation said in a press release.
In the opinion of the confederation, prices in 2019 will be affected by high supply and low demand, an increase in interest rates on loans, a rise in wages, prices for building materials, logistics, and fuel. At the same time, the demand of buyers will be stimulated by a competent project concept, quality of construction, and pricing policy.
The confederation also plans together with the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry to review a number of national construction standards, as well as to complete the discussion of bills on the protection of investors who are victims of frauds on the market and on long-delayed construction projects.
According to the press release, in 2019, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) expects growth in the lending pace on the real estate market. At the same time, the rate of lending to the population increased by 40% in 2018, the confederation reported with reference to the NBU.
According to the confederation, in the current year, the elite class housing became cheaper – the average price of one square meter in Kyiv in 2018 amounted to UAH 53,000, which is 13% lower than in 2017; at the same time, economy class housing has risen in price by almost 14% compared with 2017, to UAH 19,000 per square meter.
The European Union (EU) continues the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine local empowerment, accountability and development programme and would provide EUR 50 million for the implementation of the second phase of the programme. The press service of Deputy Prime Minister, Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Minister Hennadiy Zubko has reported that this was discussed at a meeting of the deputy prime minister with Head of the Support Group for Ukraine in the European Commission Peter Wagner and Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine Stefan Schleuning.
“We continue successful cooperation with the U-LEAD project. The road map of cooperation will remain the same, since Ukraine’s agreement with the EU on cooperation under this project complies with the European Charter of Local Self-Government. By the end of January 2019, together with our international partners, we will prepare action plan 2020 and on its basis we will propose the structure of the Central Reform Office. We have many new tasks, in particular, work on electoral legislation and cartographic works for modeling the processes in the regions,” Zubko said.
According to him, now the country, in particular, the central and local authorities, the parliament, and local authorities, faces a number of tasks, the implementation of which will lead to the successful implementation of the decentralization reform. This is the creation of a new territorial base and the holding of elections in 2020 on the new administrative and territorial map of Ukraine.
The deputy prime minister said that synchronously, local governments, regional administrations and more than 10 ministries should advance in the creation of the sub-regional level and their own territorial structures.
“In 2020, the issue of the new electoral legislation on local elections will appear. And we will propose changes to the legislation. We will insist on involving the public in the electoral process. Time is short – two years. This is very little for these tectonic changes. However, we have strong support from international partners,” Zubko said.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has issued a loan of EUR 2.6 million to Negabarit-Service LLC (Volyn region), one of the leaders of the domestic market for oversized and complex cargo carriage by road, to finance an investment program providing the procurement of up to 42 GPS-equipped tractor trucks and 18 trailers. According to a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine, the loan agreement was signed in Kyiv on December 20.
The loan will be accompanied by a grant of up to EUR 100,000 under the EU4Business program and a stimulating grant of $452,000 under the EBRD’s FINTECC program launched by the bank in Ukraine in February 2016 to support the introduction of new technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation to them.
It is assumed that the new trucks will reduce the operating costs of Negabarit-Service by at least 30% due to the reduction of fuel consumption and the cost of maintenance. They will meet environmental standards of at least Euro-6, which will help reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide by 80% and carbon oxide by 22%.
PJSC Bank Lviv has attracted funding from Triodos Investment Management (Netherlands) in the amount of EUR 5 million, the bank said on its website. “Dutch-based company Triodos Investment Management through its inclusive financial funds, namely Triodos Microfinance Fund and Triodos Sustainable Equity Fund, provides a credit line of EUR 5 million to Ukraine’s Bank Lviv. This line will strengthen the bank’s position in the credit financing of domestic micro and small businesses and the agrarian sector,” the report says.
Triodos Investment Management is a subsidiary of Triodos Bank.
As reported, this autumn Swiss-based asset management company responsAbility Participations AG (Zurich) acquired a 40.45% stake in Bank Lviv.
Bank Lviv was registered in 1991.
Bank Lviv ranked 39th among 82 banks operating in the country as of October 1, 2018 in terms of net assets (UAH 2.024 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
The investment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the development of business projects in Ukraine will reach EUR 550 million by the end of 2018, EBRD Deputy Head for Ukraine Marina Petrov has said.
“Taking into account this transaction [a loan to the carrier Negabarit-Service], we will have about EUR 505 million in the deals signed in 2018, and we hope that we should reach EUR 550 million by the end of the year,” she said at a press conference in Kyiv.
Petrov also noted that the EBRD plans to increase investments by 20% if the rate of economic growth is maintained.
“The economic growth that started in Ukraine creates opportunities for new business investments. We hope that in 2019 we will do more business by at least 20%, and if the macroeconomic situation remains stable, we will try to do more,” she said.
According to her, the EBRD continues to consider Ukraine as one of the main countries among its customers.
“We are very positive about the prospects for next year’s projects,” she said.
Ukrainian insurance companies in January-September 2018 collected net premiums in the amount of UAH 25.388 billion, which is 22.1% more than in the same period of 2017, according to the website of the National Commission for the State Regulation of the Financial Services Market. According to the regulator, gross insurance premiums collected by insurers for this period amounted to UAH 34.875 billion (11.1% more).
The share of net insurance premiums in gross insurance premiums for the nine months of 2018 increased by 6.6 p.p. compared to the same indicator of 2017 and amounted to 72.8%.
In January-September of the current year, insurers paid out UAH 8.467 billion in net insurance claim fees, which is 18.3% more than in the same period a year earlier. The level of net payments decreased from 34.4% from 33.3%.
According to the regulator, gross insurance payments increased by 18.7%, to UAH 8.755 billion, the level of gross payments rose to 25.1% from 23.5%.
According to the commission, outgoing reinsurance operations for the nine months of 2018 decreased by 11.6%, to UAH 11.718 billion, in particular due to the decrease in domestic reinsurance by 10.5%, to UAH 9.487 billion, by non-resident reinsurers by 16.2%, to UAH 2.232 billion.
