Ukrainian Association of Developers held a meeting with Build Europe: start of a dialogue between Ukrainian and European developers

The Ukrainian Association of Developers has launched a series of international meetings as part of its experience exchange program. The first offline event was a meeting with Build Europe - one of the leading associations of European developers.

During the discussion, Ukrainian companies (Kovalska, Stolitsa Group, Intergal-Bud, UDP, KAN, Futura Hata, and others) presented their projects in the field of residential and commercial real estate, outlined the main tasks of the industry: restoring the pace of housing construction, increasing the affordability of housing for citizens, and developing mortgage financing. Participants emphasized that systemic changes in housing policy, financing, and cost reduction are needed to restore and develop the market.

Representatives of Build Europe shared their experience in overcoming similar problems and emphasized the importance of finding new financing mechanisms, in particular in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. They also emphasized that the issue of affordable housing is relevant not only for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe.

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We face a very important task - to build a system that will allow us to scale the housing construction market.

The EU's example shows that this requires an effective licensing system, a stable investment climate, a short investment and construction cycle, bank lending for housing construction, project financing, and mass mortgages.

In addition to commercial expediency, this has another, much more important meaning: creating conditions for providing housing for millions of Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine has the smallest housing area per capita among European countries. This means that it is equally important for us to improve living conditions for those who are already somewhat housed.

We see that in Europe these tools have long been developed. We have yet to create them in Ukraine. And we have to make sure that the system works not for officials, not for banks, not for developers individually, but for millions of ordinary people. So that a young specialist can take out a mortgage, move into a new apartment and know that in 15-20 years this housing will become his or her property.

It is very important to emphasize that these are not abstract reforms, they are concrete steps," said Yevhen Favorov, head of the UAA.

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"The European housing market today is facing a shortage of financing and affordable housing, and these challenges are well known to Ukraine. We want to bring together information and best practices to understand how we can help the most. For us, it is clear that bringing more capital into the market and supporting Ukraine offers great opportunities, despite the challenges," said Andreas Ibel, President of Build Europe

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The parties agreed on opportunities:

• join Build Europe as a member organization;
• exchange data and analytics on the housing market;
• jointly prepare recommendations for the Ukrainian authorities;
• to hold further more practical meetings.
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In the near future, the two industry associations will consider organizing joint events and participation of Ukrainian representatives in the March Build Europe meeting.