By mid-August, more than 343,000 families have improved their housing conditions using maternity capital. Of these, 77,000 utilized the funds for a direct housing purchase without taking a loan. Based on applications from these families, the Social Fund disbursed RUB 51.7 billion this year. Another 266,000 families paid off their bank loans totaling RUB 188.3 billion.
Consequently, the volume of approved housing purchase requests, for which funds were actually disbursed, grew by 14% versus the same period last year. This growth was primarily driven by an increase in mortgage transactions involving maternity capital. These transactions had an impact on the overall amount of funds allocated based on housing improvement applications from families. As compared to requests, associated expenditures saw an even bigger year-on-year increase, rising by nearly 20%.
Housing acquisition is one of the most popular ways of using maternity capital. The money may be spent on improving housing conditions, once the child turns three. An exception is made for repaying principal or making a down payment on a mortgage. In such cases, the funds can be used immediately after the birth or adoption of the child who entitles the family to the maternity capital certificate.
It should be noted that in order to use maternity capital, the housing being purchased or built must be located in Russia. It is also worth bearing in mind that home repair is not included in the list of housing improvement activities, and therefore maternity capital cannot be spent for this purpose.
The maternity capital program has been in effect in Russia since 2007 and helped millions of families with children improve their housing conditions. Today, this support measure is provided as part of the Family national project.