YEREVAN, June 29. /ARKA/. The Armenian government is considering the possibility of launching a targeted construction program in the regions, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Smbat Sayyan said during an on-line conference today.

He recalled a recent government-approved program designed to stimulate mortgage lending in the regions, which comes into force on July 1 involving three components - a one-time cash allowance for buying an apartment in the region, a prepayment insurance program and a one-time birth allowance.

According to him, within the framework of the first component, families will be provided with a lump-sum allowance for the purchase of housing on a mortgage in the amount of 5% of the cost of real estate, but not more than 1 million drams. The condition is that the family must have at least two minor children.

The amount will increase depending on the number of children - the maximum amount of assistance for 4 children is e 2 million drams.

“The second component of the program is prepayment insurance. In other words, the government insures the obligation of the beneficiary, if they cannot pay, then the expenses will be covered by insurance,” Sayyan said.

The third component, he said, will help families that are already paying a mortgage loan and who are going to have a baby after July 1st. In this case, the government will pay off 10% of the mortgage loan for families living in the region if they have 1 or 2 children. For families in Yerevan the government will pay 5%. If the family is going to have a third and subsequent child, then the payment for the region will be 50%, and 25% in Yerevan.

“There will be more new programs, in particular, a targeted construction program is planned in regions where there is no commercial construction, which is why many cannot use the income tax refund program to pay off mortgage interest,” Sayyan said.

He noted that one of the goals of the program is to improve demographic situation  in the villages, as  studies show that the decline in demography is mainly manifested there.

According to him, the birth rate per one  thousand urban population in 1992 was 18.1 and  23.8 for rural population. In 2018 the rate for urban population  dropped to 12.8, and for rural population to 11.5. The decline in the villages is strong and the fertility situation is worse than in cities.

“Today, the total fertility index in villages has almost halved, although the cities also have  a decline, but at a weaker pace,” said Sayyan. -0-