You will not buy or rent an apartment, but you will not build a new one: the municipality has taken the initiative

When driving through Ukmergė, it is not difficult to realize that the city has been significantly renovated in recent years: part of the streets, sidewalks, public spaces.

Here is just the absolute majority of the apartment buildings that are no longer in Soviet-era clothes, because Ukmergė is not the city that can boast a quick renovation.

As with new construction. New individual houses are emerging in or around Ukmergė, but not in blocks and especially in multi-apartment buildings.

Construction companies, from big cities to small ones, are not overly interested.

According to Darius Varnas, director of the Ukmergė municipality administration, not because of the lack of demand for new apartments, but because of the price, construction costs practically the same as in Vilnius or Kaunas.

Modern social housing

However, realizing that the need for new housing in the city is high, the municipal leaders have taken the initiative and intend to implement at least two projects together with the municipal company Ukmergės butų ūkis.

Several plots in the city have already been planned.

“We are trying to build cabins, this is the first project, the second will probably be to build apartment buildings. We decided with the district managers, the director of administration, we changed the way to use the plots.

We will try to go beyond the commercial route. We are a UAB, our objective is to distribute dividends, but at the same time we would solve a social problem. There is a queue of waiters, ”said Kęstutis Jurkevičius, director of Ukmergės butų ūkio.

True, that queue will soon be significantly shortened.

Work is being completed on a completely renovated former school dormitory on Linų Street, which is equipped with 20 social housing units and ten apartments are provided for the needs of the municipality; perhaps some specialists who have moved to Ukmergė can stay here.

The modern building, smelling of paint, is far from reminiscent of an old abandoned bedroom that was thought to have been demolished.

However, after calculating the municipal staff, they decided that it would be better to renovate the future: the municipality has not been able to buy apartments for social housing on the market for some time. Even after the abolition of the maximum price, there is a lack of supply.

“We have to buy 12 apartments before the end of the year, but we don’t have any offers.” Previously, the price should have been about 30 thousand. euros, now the ministry has already allowed to buy at any price, we think we would buy at least five. But no apartment is offered, “said D. Varnas.

Both apartment buildings and cabins

Therefore, according to the director of administration, if the Ukmergė apartment projects are successful, the social housing municipality will have more.

Of course, we are not talking about country houses, but about apartments in planned apartment buildings.

“Some people need houses, others need cabins, but some people will also need apartments, as well as social housing, because people are waiting in line. Because we are 100 percent. UAB, we have to listen to the tasks of the founder, the city council to listen and do something together. There are projects in development. So far, construction has not started, but preparatory work is underway, ”said K. Jurkevičius.

According to him, the time has come when building materials have become very expensive and the preparation of documents also delays the process: new construction, renovation sometimes takes much less time than preparing for them.

“Such an idea not only to dedicate itself to administration, but also to development, development, arose because the market and the municipality cannot buy. Today, even in an unrenewed home, the unrenewed home costs $ 50,000. which is, at best, energy class C. For living, no matter what fur they wear, pipelines are as old as the world.

Since the municipality is our sole shareholder, please provide guarantees. The municipality, as far as possible, gave us that guarantee. What does the municipal guarantee mean for companies? Okay, banks look favorable. Working together, we can provide our shareholders with various social housing services at completely different and non-commercial prices. It would also be good for self-government and for us, maybe we will win from other apartments, “said K. Jurkevičius.

There will be twelve cabins, six apartments in each house on two floors. The plot is already being prepared for it, the old ruins and bushes have been cleared. The area is between individual houses, construction is expected to start in August.

As soon as the first information about future construction appears, K. Jurkevičius already says that he has received calls wanting to buy:

“A building was already very interesting, we glued it to the plan with magnets, but we haven’t booked it yet, the processes have taken a long time. And we don’t have an estimate yet, we don’t know what the price will be. “

However, the director of the municipal company claims that it does not compete with private builders, that if the construction takes place in Ukmergė, the local reinforced concrete plant has orders, the work is done by local workers.

The houses are reserved

A block of private houses near the Šilo school is already increasing.

Its builders, co-owners of Norlit, say interest in the house is huge.

“No major construction has been done in Ukmergė for many years; there are individual houses that people are building themselves, but nothing has been built for sale. We have seen that prospect. After all, there are many beautiful examples of beautiful districts in Vilnius, Kaunas, even jealous that so many young people leave and do not return, because there is no place to return here, they do not want to go with their parents.

That’s what we think, we try. As soon as the situation happened that we were able to buy this land, his colleague Roland Schmidt came up with the idea. The bank offered a reasonable price, we bought it, we deployed a little to try to build, we will see that it will be, ”said one of its developers, Kastytis Našlėnas, about the Silo House project.

In the first stage, it is planned to build six houses, fix the infrastructure, a street with lighting, and then more houses will be built, until the school’s plot occupies three hectares.

24 plots have already been prepared and another 1.5 ha will be waiting their turn.

“All houses are reserved, construction of which has begun and which we will begin in the near future. No announcements were placed in any public space, announcement portal or the like. People are interested ”, smiles K. Našlėnas, recalling the accusations about the destruction of the school park.

All houses are reserved. No announcements were placed in any public space, announcement portal or the like. People just wonder.

The size of the first homes up to one hundred square meters, and the price per square meter will be 1000 euros.

Others, further from the street, from the car wash, which is installed here, may be more expensive, this is dictated by the increase in prices for building materials.

When asked if there is a shortage of builders, Ukrainians who previously worked in Norway say they mostly do everything on their own, so they don’t need a lot of strength here. Maybe it’s just because the construction pace is slower.