No one lives there, but it could become a home: where will IDPs find housing?
16 February 16:31
Finally, there is a glimmer of hope for temporarily displaced persons who lost their homes during the armed conflict and are forced to live in rented apartments, schools and kindergartens converted for displaced persons, sanatoriums, dormitories, temporary camps, etc. The Ministry of Development announced a large-scale inventory of vacant real estate to create affordable housing for IDPs and vulnerable groups, even at the expense of citizens’ non-privatized apartments. The details of this program were studied by
The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, in cooperation with the international organization Habitat for Humanity (HFH), is launching a new project to assess and select vacant real estate for investment in affordable and sustainable housing. This was reported by the ministry.
The initiative is based on Law of Ukraine No. 4080, which provides for additional mechanisms to provide housing for internally displaced persons. This involves the inspection and assessment of state and municipal property — buildings, land plots, and other real estate that is not in use and could potentially be converted into housing, the ministry said.
The project aims to determine how to use vacant buildings for housing, create a basis for investing in affordable and sustainable housing, and support internally displaced persons and vulnerable groups.
Panagiotis Navrozidis, Senior Director of the Europe and Middle East Program at Habitat for Humanity, also commented on the initiative:
“The housing crisis in Ukraine requires quick and sustainable solutions. A systematic approach to identifying and repurposing real estate properties not only supports national housing reform but also offers practical, data-driven solutions for creating affordable housing. Ukraine’s experience in this process has the potential to become a valuable example and shape models that are relevant far beyond its borders.”
The joint project involves HFH conducting nationwide mapping and classification of properties that can be reconstructed or converted. The data obtained will be integrated into a digital information and analytical housing system for IDPs, which will be operational from October 2026.
Based on the results of the assessment, comprehensive investment proposals will be prepared for the selected properties, including preliminary cost estimates, reconstruction options, and implementation plans.
February-March 2026: selection of real estate objects and field inspections of 60-70 buildings in three pilot regions: Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Poltava.
April-May 2026 — preparation of detailed investment proposals for 10-15 selected properties. At the same time, a practical set of tools and solutions for converting vacant buildings into housing will be developed.
Separately, HFH will consider the possibility of implementing one of the prepared reconstruction projects as a pilot project to provide affordable and sustainable housing for IDPs and vulnerable groups. The international organization will also work to attract investment for other selected properties.
It should be noted that, according to the Law of Ukraine “On Social Housing,” social housing is provided to Ukrainian citizens who need social protection on the basis of a fixed-term lease agreement. Such housing is not subject to privatization, sale, or mortgage and is used exclusively for its intended purpose.
Non-privatized housing will easily go…
One thing is that there will be an audit and reformatting of unused state and municipal buildings, but this also applies to the housing stock, namely apartments and houses that are registered with local authorities. This is what scares Ukrainians the most. But if you think about it, there is nothing to fear yet; no one is going to forcibly take away anyone’s apartment, says
“After the death of the tenant, non-privatized housing remains the property of the state or local community, as it is not hereditary property. The owner is the municipality (city council) or the state. However, family members of the deceased who are registered at this address (husband/wife, children, parents) have the right to renew the lease agreement and continue to live there. Relatives who did not live in the apartment have no rights to it and cannot inherit it. If the deceased submitted documents for privatization during their lifetime but did not manage to obtain the deed during their lifetime, the heirs can complete this process through the court. And the court is always on their side,” says the lawyer.
But if no one is registered in the apartment, the housing goes to the housing fund for the needy (it becomes an unclaimed inheritance). That is, the local community can dispose of such property at its own discretion — settle a prosecutor, a locksmith, a janitor, or an internally displaced person there.
Unfortunately, there is no accurate official data on the number of non-privatized dwellings in Ukraine as of the beginning of 2026. It is known that a year after the abolition of martial law, the mechanism of free privatization will be terminated, and the dwelling will become social or service housing, which cannot be alienated.
Demolishing is not building, rebuilding is not constructing something new
Housing programs for IDPs in Ukraine are not working out. As of early January 2026, the Pension Fund of Ukraine had received 1,224 applications from IDPs to participate in the new preferential mortgage lending program “єОселя” (eOselya). State assistance has been allocated for 118 applications, for which the process of issuing loans with 70% compensation for the initial deposit and payments has already begun. UAH 4.4 billion has been allocated for the program in 2026.
As noted in a comment
“Sometimes it is much cheaper to build a new house from scratch than to renovate an old one, especially if it is dilapidated. If there are utilities, land, and the willingness of local communities, then a new nine-story building, even if it is a monolithic frame structure, can be built in 6-8 months. And there is a chance to provide apartments for at least 120-150 families. If we multiply 150 apartments by an average area of 50 square meters, we get about 7,500 square meters of net living space. Adding to this the common areas (corridors, stairwells, elevator lobbies), we can estimate the total area of the building to be around 9,500–10,500 square meters. But, for example, if you renovate an old administrative building, you will barely get 3,000-4,000 square meters of total area,” says Serhiy Lysak.
And the renovation will not be faster than the construction of a new facility. But if all this is done at the expense of sponsors, then it may take more than a year or two to not only select the facility, but also approve the project, allocate funds, and find contractors.
The idea is good, the main thing is that the contractors do not let us down. More than 4.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine need housing, with hundreds of thousands of them in urgent need of a solution to their housing problem, while government data is contradictory. In three years, less than 100 IDPs have received permanent housing.
Author: Alla Dunina
