Number of escrow accounts under equity construction contracts double in last 2 months

During the last two months, both the number of escrow accounts opened for settlements under equity construction contracts and the amount of deposited funds has more than doubled: from 10.1 thousand accounts and 30.2 billion rubles as of 26 August to 23.2 thousand accounts and 73.8 billion rubles as of 28 October 2019. This is evidenced by the results of survey of authorised banks where settlement accounts of construction companies and escrow accounts can be opened.

While in January-May 2019 the number of escrow accounts grew by 200-800 each month, since August, it has been growing by over 5 thousand on a monthly basis.

In two months, the number of credit agreements concluded with construction companies to finance equity construction projects rose from 315 to 519 while the total contract amount rose from 306.3 billion to 640.9 billion rubles.

The territorial coverage of project financing is expanding. As of 1 July 2019, projects using the new funding scheme (with escrow accounts and/or credit agreements) were being implemented in 50 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. As of 28 October, such projects were under way in 68 regions.

In 12 regions, there are equity construction projects with 900 escrow accounts released due to the commissioning of buildings and transfer of property rights to apartments to equity construction participants. Nearly 1.6 billion rubles were transferred from these accounts to construction companies and to repay loans extended to them. Therefore, the scheme envisaged by law has been implemented with regard to these projects at all stages: from opening escrow accounts and/or funding to closing escrow accounts.