Since the topic of housing is the most interesting for ordinary residents of Chisinau today, we decided to review the main problems identified by the authors of the section dedicated to the analysis of the housing stock.
In 2024, the total population of Chisinau municipality is 720,128 inhabitants (according to the data of the NBS RM).
Residential buildings occupy 53% of the city territory and are the most important part of the architectural heritage. There are 5105 residential buildings built on the territory of the city, of which 4040 are from 1 to 4 floors, 684 – five-storey, 284 – up to 9 floors, 97 – of 9 or more floors.
By type of housing it is divided into the following categories: separate houses – 35.2%; apartments in apartment buildings – 62.7%; rooms in dormitories – 2.1%.
According to the authors, many apartment buildings are in unsatisfactory condition. They are characterized by a monotonous layout, poor appearance, outdated roofing, carpentry, elevators and utilities.
The general condition of the apartment fund can be characterized as contradictory. On the one hand, there is construction of new, modern apartment buildings with a higher level of comfort compared to Soviet-era buildings. On the other hand, old apartment buildings are gradually deteriorating and are often in a state of emergency. According to the analysis and comprehensive assessment, currently about 4% of the existing housing stock is represented by emergency buildings, most of which are located in the old part of the city.
Thus, a quarter of a million Chisinau residents live in apartment buildings whose technical condition is alarming: more than 450 buildings (the first generation of panel houses) are at the end of their useful life, and more than 50% of apartment buildings were built more than 35 years ago and have not been overhauled (the average degree of deterioration exceeds 65%). One third of roofs and more than 60% of internal engineering networks require major and urgent repairs.
The mass privatization of public housing, which began in 1993, led to the almost complete liquidation of the public housing stock and contributed to a maximum increase in the share of privately owned housing. However, the privatization process was not accompanied by the adoption of normative acts necessary to ensure the rights and obligations of owners with regard to common property. To this day, tenants are still waiting for subsidies from the mayor’s office or the state for maintenance, repair, or sanitation of apartment buildings and yard territories. As a result, efforts to reform the housing sector have encountered a reluctance of apartment owners to organize into associations.
There are 3,751 apartment buildings in Chisinau, of which 1,162 are administered by Municipal Housing Management Enterprises (IMGFL), 982 are Associations of Privatized Housing Owners (APLP), 245 are housing construction cooperatives (CCL), 806 are Associations of Co-Owners in Condominium (ACC), and 180 are other forms of management.
The authors of the prepared documents further list the institutional dysfunctions identified in the 2010 study of the Concept of the Chisinau City Residential Building Management Reform conducted by the “Institute of Urban Economy”.
Although 15 years have passed since then, the authors apparently considered that they have not lost their relevance until now.
In particular, it is noted that there is no unified methodological base for delimitation of land plots adjacent to residential buildings for the purposes of cadastral registration of condominiums. The source of funding for delimitation of such land plots has not been specified. State authorities do not ensure control over the condition of apartment buildings, and there is no municipal mechanism for controlling the condition of the housing stock.
The practice of the Chisinau Municipal Council making single-person decisions on the transfer of apartment buildings to the management of homeowners’ associations persists. Unlike apartment buildings managed by municipal enterprises, homeowners associations do not receive budget funds for the development of adjacent territories and emergency maintenance, as well as for the repair and replacement of engineering systems.
The vast majority of apartment buildings that have not established homeowners associations continue to remain unreasonably on the balance sheet of the municipal government.
In the absolute majority of cases, existing (co-)owners associations prefer self-service and are not interested in engaging professional services in this area.
There is no practice of applying enforcement measures to apartment owners who do not pay for housing and communal services for the maintenance and servicing of common property. Tariffs for housing services are set by political vote of the Chisinau Municipal Council.
The order of distribution of budget funds for current and capital repairs of apartment buildings is not transparent. Apartment owners have no opportunity to influence the efficiency of the use of budget funds allocated for the repair of their own apartment buildings.
The authors of the study also draw attention to such problems as cumbersome, confusing and excessively bureaucratized legal framework regulating the procedure for the establishment and operation of homeowners’ associations. The current level of tariffs for the management and maintenance of the housing stock (set by the Chisinau Municipal Council) does not include capital repairs of apartment buildings. The budget resources of Chisinau municipality are not able to meet the growing needs in capital repair and modernization of the housing stock. The existing practice of financing certain selective capital repairs at the expense of budget funds has no legal basis and is inefficient. Budgetary allocations for capital repairs of apartment buildings are used by municipal enterprises without control of the direct beneficiaries.
Apartment buildings managed by homeowners associations have no right to participate in the process of distributing budget funds for capital repairs, which is unfair and counterproductive. There are no opportunities to attract credit resources for capital repair and modernization of apartment buildings, etc.
