Ways to improve Russia’s housing policy

The article provides a brief overview of the situation in the Russian economy one year after the imposition of sanctions by the United States, European countries, and their allies because the special military operation was launched in Ukraine. The assessment of the difficult situation of the housing construction industry for 2023 is given. This evaluation became possible due to an imbalance of supply and demand, because of high real estate prices and a large number of unsold flats, and because of decreases in demand due to purchases in 2021 of flats for the future, uncertainty about the future, and reduced purchasing power of citizens. Assuming a long period of sanctions, the author’s vision of ways to improve housing policy is presented, which can become one of the main drivers of social and economic development of Russia under sanctions. The key proposal is to change the emphasis in housing policy from high-rise to low-rise individual housing construction. This fact will help to maintain production bycompanies that are connected with housing construction industry. Low-rise housing construction will contribute to the inclusion of urban districts in the agglomeration. It is suggested to stimulate the development of the market of individual low-rise housing by expanding the list of preferential mortgage programs, increasing funding, using public-private and municipal-private partnerships, founding construction savings banks, using digital technologies and ecosystems. To set the strategic goals of housing policy and to monitor the effectiveness of its further implementation, the author’s methodology for calculating a generalized integral indicator is proposed. It takes into account the development in the economic, housing, and digital spheres.