OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2007. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has lent 700 million roubles (equivalent to ?20 million) to fund urban renewal in the Siberian oil centre of Surgut and lay the foundations for major transformation of the housing stock whose model could be copied by other Russian municipalities, reported the press-centre of  EBRD.

The EBRD’s first project in Russia’s municipal housing sector aims to achieve three key goals: creating energy efficient housing, involving the private sector in construction and housing maintenance and encouraging residents to get involved in the management of the buildings in which they live. The Bank sees these as key to renewing the sector and ensuring its sustainability.


This pilot project will pave the way for implementing a wider programme of urban renewal in Surgut which the EBRD estimates could achieve energy savings of 30 percent. The money saved would be sufficient to heat a town of 30-50,000 people in Western Europe.

Around 30 percent of Russia’s housing was built in 1960-1980, a period when prefabricated concrete panels were widely used to achieve high rates of construction. The resulting apartment blocks are not only very inefficient in energy terms, but have a limited lifetime and are now deteriorating rapidly, amplifying the housing problems facing the population.
The problem is particularly acute in Surgut, a small town which mushroomed after the oilfields of western Siberia came on tap in the 1960s. It now numbers some 300,000 people. The city is part of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (District), which produces 60 percent of Russia’s current oil output, making it one of the richest of the country’s regions.
The Russian government has made housing one of its national priorities. The EBRD is participating in the Surgut project in the hope that its structure and techniques can be replicated in other parts of the country in a way that will attract private sector involvement in the massive task of refurbishing Russia’s housing stock and creating a new and economically sustainable base for its upkeep, said EBRD President Jean Lemierre at a signing ceremony in the regional capital.
The Surgut project will involve demolishing two buildings which are beyond repair and building four new ones both to house people moved out of the two demolished buildings and to create nearly 600 apartments which can be sold on the open market to finance the costs. Up to a quarter of the overall housing created will be earmarked as municipal housing for low-income tenants.

In a separate project, the EBRD last year extended a loan of 700 million roubles which will benefit the surrounding district, known as the Surgutsky Rayon. This will be used to improve district heating, as well as water and wastewater services in small settlements spread over a 105,000 square kilometre area around Surgut where some 112,000 people live. The aim is to commercialise these services as well as to improve them and increase their reliability. The EU funded a technical feasibility study prioritising the necessary investments.

Both projects are part of a wider 38 billion rouble programme of investments and guarantees being undertaken by the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (District) to support reform of communal and housing services in its municipalities with the aim of making these self-sustainable.