Ukraine to build housing according to European standards

A Cooperation Agreement was signed on Oct. 22, 2013 between the European Economic Senate (EES) and the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine (CCU), the Information-analytical Bulletin of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine informs.

The the agreement will attract foreign investment to the country and introduce European standards for doing business in Ukraine's construction industry.

Under the agreement, the Confederation aims to support the exchange of experience with Europe in legislation and taxation along with implementation of European innovative construction technologies and promotion of investment attractiveness of the Ukraine construction sector overseas.

Experts say the agreement will help Ukrainian companies expand their opportunities for operation on the European construction market (the total amount of construction sector is 550 billion USD). The memorandum also ensures access for Ukrainian construction companies to European financial markets (implies affordable credits at 3-8%).

EEC experts say Ukraine’s construction sector has a huge development potential and all the prerequisites to become the locomotive of the Ukrainian economy in the nearest future. The main leitmotif for the EU Association Agreement is improved living standards. For this, housing should be developed based on the European standards (today, there are 22 square meters per Ukrainian, compared to 37-45 square meters per person in Europe).

The European Economic Senate will give advice and introduce specifics of the European market housing to Ukrainian construction business as well as implement an integrated approach to economical, environmentally friendly and energy efficient construction of buildings for different purposes, including the passive house technology. The passive house energy concept aims to reduce energy consumption in new buildings eight to ten times. Construction of residential buildings through passive house technique is quite popular in Germany and is very successful in Europe.

EEC analysts will advise the government and the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine on rental housing construction program where many industry experts see the potential to resolve the housing issue as rental housing is most of housing in many European countries. For example, in Switzerland, rental housing is 69% of existing housing while in Germany – 59%. As far as cities, these figures are 90% in Berlin - 75% in Geneva.