Own business during the great war: since February 24, Ukrainians have leased more than 1,000 state-owned property objects

During martial law, Ukrainians do not stop working on the «economic front». Since the start of the full-scale invasion, 918 new leases have been signed on 1,091 state-ownedproperty objects.

Today, the State Property Fund is the largest lessor in the country. It manages real estate with a total area of 7.8 million square meters, accompanying more than 14,000 contracts, among which the share of contracts with individuals is almost 25%. On average, the Fund holds 27 rental auctions per week.

During the full-scale invasion, the SPFU introduced a flexible policy in dealing with leaseholders. As a result, the SPFU managed to keep the rental base almost at the pre-war level (the total number of contracts decreased by 2%) and stabilize the level of rental income – from UAH 21 million in July 2022 to UAH 54 million in December 2022.

Ultimately, in 2022, the state budget received more than UAH 575 million from the lease of state property. In the first quarter of the current year, rental income amounted to UAH 181.6 million (24.9% of the annual plan).

What elements of the flexible policy did the SPFU introduce? During martial law, the state simplified the procedure for leasing state property. “Earlier, in order to rent a property, it was necessary to pay two monthly rent payments as an advance payment and two more as a security deposit. Since June 2022, the Government has halved the initial fees for leaseholders of state property, – says Andrii Shramko, Director of the Department of Leasing and Management of State Property. – And for current leaseholders during the martial law, the algorithm of automatic extension of contracts started working.”

In addition, by the initiative of the Fund, the organizational procedure itself has been improved, in particular:

● term for an agreement with the management body with the decision to lease the property was reduced from 40 to 7 days;

● term of the auction was reduced to 5 days from the date of the announcement;

● a simplified form of the contract was introduced;

● the property of state institutions, as well as objects prohibited for privatization, under contracts signed before the introduction of martial law, can be subleased;

● budget institutions can get property without auction – without independent assessment and payment of security deposits;

● when determining the starting rent payment, no revaluation is carried out in case of a low book value;

● if there is no residual book value, the starting rent is UAH 1 per one square meter of area.

In addition, all documents (protocol on the results of the electronic auction, the lease agreement and the act of acceptance and transfer) now are signed by default using a KEP (electronic signature). Since the introduction of this option, 605 contracts have already been signed online (66% of the total number). However, it is possible to sign it offline if the winner asks for. Detailed instruction how to sign the contract online at: https://bit.ly/3LiAvaY.