No preconditions seen for housing price hike, Industry Minister says

Kazakhstan has raised the sufficiency thresholds for early withdrawal of surplus pension savings from the UAPF. At a government briefing, Minister of Industry and Construction Yersaiyn Nagaspayev was asked how this could affect housing prices.

“I will definitely not make forecasts regarding an increase or decrease in prices on the housing market. I believe that would be wrong. But I currently see no prerequisites for this,” Yersaiyn Nagaspayev replied.

At the same time, he noted that the state does not regulate prices for commercial housing.

“On average across the country, a square meter of commercial housing today costs 617,000 tenge. As for commercial housing, it is a matter of supply and demand. We do not interfere here,” the minister said.

According to him, however, prices for social housing remain under state control.

“We control prices for social housing, and they will not increase. Price caps — consolidated cost indicators — have been communicated to each region,” the head of the Ministry of Industry explained.

The minister also noted that demand for housing traditionally rises in summer.

“If you observed a decline in activity on the housing market in the first months of the year, the summer period is traditionally characterized by increased demand for housing,” he said.

When journalists asked a follow-up question on whether this meant that the increase in UAPF sufficiency thresholds had not affected the market, Nagaspayev replied briefly: “Yes.”