October 21, 2024

Even More Reason to Move to Rural Russia


Even More Reason to Move to Rural Russia
A side street of Borovsk, Kaluga Oblast, which is eligible for this mortgage program.  Sergey Ashmarin, Wikimedia Commons

The Russian government is paying people to build a house in small towns and border territories. An increasingly popular government program is funding rural mortgages by providing up to R6 million ($62,500) at a preferential rate for the construction or purchase of housing in a village. 

Since 2020, when the program was launched, more than 150,000 families have taken out rural mortgages, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in October 2024. The Ministry of Agriculture expects that, by the end of 2024, the number of villages affected by the program will reach 11,500.

The mortgages only apply to towns and villages with populations under 30,000, which have seen drastic declines in the recent years.

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