Tag Archives: auctions

Russian administration plans to nullify land category divisions

“Administration of Russia plans to introduce nullification of land category divisions” (“Pravitel’stvo Rossii planiruet provesti otmenu deleniya zemel’ na kategorii”), World Heritage Sites, 2 March 2010. 27 July 2010 http://rpmira.org/news/468.

Explication of new legislative reforms, which will most notably end land classifications (i.e. agricultural; urban; industrial; special reservations; forest reserves; water reserves; land reservoir).  The goal of the new law is to decrease the pressure of bureaucratic corruption in land transactions and rezoning processes.  The 52 items amending current legislation should go into action in 2011.  In place of the complicated system of land categories, a Ministry of Economic Development representative says, the structure of allocated use for land plots will be strengthened through renewed territorial planning and city zoning plans.  The law will also impose penal tax rates for enterprises sitting on unused state lands, which administrators hope will push these enterprises to either use or dispose of the lands, removing the burden of “blocked lands,” which otherwise would be well utilized.

Another aim of the legislation is to increase transparency of land transactions and accessibility: information about available plots will be posted on the land Cadastre’s new online database, and all land will be required to be sold at auction.  The distribution of permissions to build on land should be simplified, and will be overseen by the administration.

Braverman’s Land Patrol

Stupin, Ilya. “Braverman’s Land Patrol” (“Zemel’nii patrul’ Bravermana”), Ekspert 41, 26 October 2009, 28-34. 28 June 2010 http://dlib.eastview.com.ezproxy.middlebury.edu/browse/doc/20828585.

An examination of the federal government’s practice of distributing seized land in auctions to developers via the Residential Construction Development assistance fund (RZhS Fund).  The new government organization, an initiative of Medvedev’s aimed at creating a renewed market for construction, has begun seizing land from agricultural institutes on grounds of underuse.  Developers in Tyumen’, Kirov, Cheboksarakh, and Kursk have already begun leasing these lands, promised the opportunity to privatize the land after 9-11 years of use.  The article criticizes the RZhS Fund institution as short-sighted, as it is so far unclear as to who will consist the buyers and renters in this new, real-estate-flooded residential building market.  Although, both RZhS Fund head Aleksandr Braverman and construction business heads credit the Fund’s creation with the streamlining of bureaucratic processes and incentivizing of developers’ building-up and eventually privatizing the plots.  Controls on where developers can set rent rates, as well as insufficient budgetary funds allocated for the RZhS count among the Fund’s problems.

Quoting from an interview with Kirov Oblast governor, Nikita Belikh, the second half of the article examines what may be the RZhS’s greatest weakness: a lack of a central region development plan and poor cooperation with the regions in which these infrastructure-less lands are being auctioned.

News of the Week

“News of the Week,” Ekspert Volga 38 (153), 5 October 2009.  30 June 2010 http://www.expert.ru/printissues/volga/2009/38/news_week/.

The Republic of Tatarstan’s Gossovet deputies proposed an amendment to the RF Land Code that would allow seizures of land, the owners of which have not paid their land taxes or put the land to use in the last three years. The proceeds from these lands’ auctions (minus transaction costs) would be used as compensation for the previous proprietors, from whom the land was seized. “The measures put forth by the deputies, indubitably, could enliven the land market and shrink the number of ineffectively used lands.”

The Infrastructure Phantom

Stupin, Ilya. “Infrastrukturnii’ fantom,” Ekspert 34, 07 September 2009, 88-92. 25 June 2010 http://dlib.eastview.com.ezproxy.middlebury.edu/browse/doc/20586521.

Review of the problems facing infrastructure and highway building in Russia.   Article highlights probable missteps of the government in focusing its attention and resources on unneeded projects.  The recently created firm Rusavtodor overshadows existing motorway infrastructure construction enterprises; its legal status as an enterprise is ambiguous.  Its Land Code provides terms of lease on federal and non-real land properties, which exempt the company from receiving certain permissions and allow for the conclusion of lease agreements without usual public auctions. Questions are raised as to why this state-favored enterprise has been given “less complicated” projects and land on which to work, given the fact that its capital base is capable of tackling larger problems (92).