Number of escrow accounts opened in equity construction grew by nearly one-fourth in December
The amount of project financing in equity housing construction consistently increased throughout 2019. These findings are based on surveys of banks authorised to open developers’ payment accounts and escrow accounts.
As of 1 July 2019, the new financing scheme was used in 217 projects in 50 constituent territories of Russia, with escrow accounts opened and loan contracts for their financing concluded, while as of 1 January 2020, there were over 1,100 projects launched in 71 constituent territories of Russia.
December 2019 also recorded a robust increase in project finance. The number of escrow accounts rose by almost 25%, to exceed 44,000. The amount of funds held by equity construction participants in escrow accounts was up by nearly 30%, to 148 billion rubles. The number of loan contracts between banks and developers increased from 653 to 788, and their overall amount was up from 796 to 922 billion rubles.
To date, 27 constituent territories of Russia have completed projects that were delivered using escrow accounts: over 2,500 escrow accounts opened for 50 commissioned construction projects were released, and the funds transferred from these accounts to developers and banks to repay issued loans exceeded 5.4 billion rubles.
