Participants included representatives of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Veterans, the State Tax Service, the National Service of Ukraine, as well as international partners, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the IMF.

Dialogue is necessary to form a shared vision for reforming the private rental sector in Ukraine. Policies must be based on current and accurate data. For Cedos, it is crucial to protect the rights of tenants and increase the security and predictability of renting. Renting should become a reliable means of exercising the right to housing.

Anastasia Bobrova, Director of Cedos.

Previously, Cedos researched the state of the private rental sector to document the experiences of internally displaced persons with renting and to analyse the rental subsidy programme for IDPs. The research showed that the key problems in the private rental sector in Ukraine remain informality, unpredictability, and insecurity.

Based on the results of the study, Cedos recommends the following changes to housing policy:

  • Develop and adopt a State Housing Policy Strategy, with a section dedicated to housing rental issues and the protection of tenants’ and landlords’ rights;
  • Introduce registration of housing rental agreements. Enable the conclusion of rental agreements, for example, through ‘Diya’;
  • Amend tax legislation to provide for a differentiated tax rate for short-term and long-term housing rentals;
  • Set limits on annual rent increases within a single contract;
  • Set a minimum term for long-term rental contracts;
  • Strengthen tax control over private housing rental transactions;
  • Regulate the activities of intermediaries in the private rental sector, in part by developing and adopting specific legislation on the intermediaries’ activities.

Particularly, it is important to conduct regular monitoring studies on the quality, affordability, and other housing conditions in the private rental sector.