114 land allotments with the total area of 6,527.6 hectares were provided for housing construction in Ural Federal District in 2006. Another 3,917.8 hectares were allotted for low-rise apartment buildings, reports Petr Latyshev, Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District.

Last year, the Ural banks gave their customers approximately 30.1 billion RUR worth of loans meant for buying a place (against 11.7 billion in 2005). This is 2.3 times more than the target figures agreed upon with the federal authorities (12,827,500,000 RUR).

All the Russian Federation subjects set up special working teams consisting of representatives of local executive branch in order to facilitate the paper-collecting routines needed for getting the land allotments. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Latyshev, who supported the introduction of such teams in Tyumen, this practice is now used in other parts of Ural Federal District and, as a result, the time needed to cut through the red tape dropped from eight to eighteen months to only three to six months.