Ukraine is facing multiple challenges related to its housing sector. Housing is not affordable, especially to vulnerable groups of the population, including young people entering the labor market and low-income families. The housing affordability index, which is calculated as a ratio between the average price of available for purchase housing and the average household annual income in Kyiv, the capital, is 13.6 (an index of 3 to 5 is recognized as providing affordable housing market), which makes it very difficult for the vast majority of the population to afford buying property. At the same time, the very high level of ownership, at 93.7% of the housing stock after the privatization campaigns of the 1990s, means that the rental market is under developed.
The government of Ukraine is implementing large scale economic reforms, including in the housing sector. Multiple laws, including the Housing Code, Law on Rental Housing and many others are being drafted and discussed with wide participation of all key stakeholders in the sector.
A UNECE expert group on housing, established at the request of the government, is working this week with Ukrainian government representatives to share experiences and best practices and offer concrete recommendations to the above-mentioned draft laws. The UNECE expert group, which includes representatives from countries relevant to the situation in Ukraine, such as Estonia, Latvia, Poland, the Republic of Moldova and Slovakia, is meeting with the Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on Construction, the Ministry of Regional Development and the State Fund for Support to the Youth Housing Construction. A capacity building workshop to share international best practices and a stakeholder consultation are also organized as part of the mission.
As a next step, the UNECE expert delegation will be working with the government and experts from UN-Habitat and UNDP to develop approaches for evidence-based urban development and housing policies to achieve the urban related Sustainable Development Goals and to implement the New Urban Agenda and the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing.
The result of this cooperation is regarded as crucial to meeting the challenges Ukraine currently faces in the development of its housing sector.
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Gulnara Roll
Head, Housing and Land Management Unit
Email: [email protected]
Tel. +41 22 9172257