According to the minister, about 4.5 million Russian families are on the waiting list to improve their housing conditions, which takes 15-20 years.
According to the research, the average demand for housing makes over 1.5 billion square meters, said Khristenko.
Moreover, the minister continued, over 14 million Russian families live in poor conditions and about a million - in decrepit housing conditions.
Most of Russia's housing fund does not only meet modern requirements of comfort but also elementary sanitary norms, said Khristenko.
In his words, Russia's housing fund totals 2.85 billion square meters (19 million living facilities). "Buildings over 30 years old account for over 62% in Russia, and the ones which are more than 30% decrepit amount to 61.6%," said Khristenko.
He remarked that the decrepit housing fund totaled nearly 90 million square meters (3.1%).
He added that housing was one of the fundamental values.
"The question we are considering today undoubtedly touches upon the most important interests of our citizens," said Khristenko.
"The fact that we are considering not only governmental draft laws but also draft laws prepared in the Duma testifies that the country has come to the point when we can solve many inveterate problems through the joint efforts of all the power branches," said Khristenko.
The minister also said that an average price of a square meter was twice as high as its prime cost. Last year, it accounted for 16,300 rubles, while its prime cost stood at 8,000 rubles," said Khristenko.
In his words, housing prices grow mostly due to the numerous administrative and monopoly barriers in preparing and allocating sites for construction, paying for the development of the city infrastructure, renderin the form of private flats passed over to the municipalities with transaction expenses.
"Today the growth rate of housing prices corresponds to the dynamics of the population's incomes. This proves that there are no additional domestic sources for developing the housing market and creating competitive conditions without these barriers. And we can proceed within this price corridor as long as possible," said Khristenko.
In his words, the package of housing draft laws will help liberalize the housing market, increase competition and facilitate access for construction companies to sites for construction.
