Minsk residents storm municipalities

Minsk residents have lined up hurrying up to privatize their accommodation.

It has become known recently that non-privatized apartments may soon be again given a ‘for rent’ status. This news has increased the lines to local administrations made of people wanting to privatize their accommodations, STV reports.

At the ‘One window’ service of Minsk Moscow district’s they have registered as many applications in four past days as in whole April.

“If we had 10-15 people a day in April, then we accepted 50 yesterday, 43 – the day before yesterday, there were two days with 34. We have to time to took our eyes off the papers”, - Valancina Samusik, the head of the ‘One window’ service of the Moscow district’s administration, says.

So far it is only a project that non-privatized apartments may soon again turn into ones for rent. The document is now being considered by the government. But such rumors have definitely rushed the sluggish ones. It was possible to register accommodations as own property already 20 years ago, and before 1999 there were preferential conditions for that.

Now there are 392 thousand non-privatized apartments in the country. It accounts for 14% of the whole amount of accommodation. The decree’s project suggests that Belarusians will have a year to think whether to register the property rights for their square meters or not. In the case of refusal to privatize an apartment, rent will have to be paid, since it is state’s property according to its status.  May be the rent will be less than an accommodation from the state’s commercial fund, the exact price has not yet been determined.

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