ADB provides $10 million loan to develop affordable housing projects in Georgia
The loan will finance two residential complexes, providing over 3,700 affordable and energy-efficient apartments for people on low-to middle-incomes. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and local company Optima have signed a $10 million loan to develop affordable and sustainable residential housing developments in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, announces the ADB.
The loan will finance two residential complexes, providing over 3,700 affordable and energy-efficient apartments for people on low-to middle-incomes.
Optima is a subsidiary of m2 Group and Georgia Real Estate (GRE), one of Georgia’s leading residential and commercial real estate companies.
The project aims to modernise affordable housing in Tbilisi by incorporating inclusiveness into the design and adopting gender-responsive and accessibility standards. These housing developments demonstrate how the industry can generate affordable and quality housing for low- to middle-income communities in Georgia and throughout the region”, said ADB Private Sector Operations Department Director of Infrastructure Finance for South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia Shantanu Chakraborty.
The ADB says that more than 80% of Tbilisi’s apartments were built during or before the Soviet era. Old residential blocks lack recreational areas, parking facilities, and elevators. Accessibility to public spaces for the elderly, people with disabilities, women, and children is also substandard.
In 2019, the city government unveiled an urban plan to promote sustainable urban development, spatial planning, and inclusive infrastructure. The government has created gender advisor roles within its urban development and environmental protection departments to promote gender-sensitive designs for the city’s open spaces.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced today that the government plans to tighten construction regulations even further. "Construction permit issuance procedures should be strictly controlled and such a mistake should not be allowed a second time", said Garibashvili, referring to a residential building which collapsed in the Black Sea coastal city of Batumi last week killing nine.
Proposed amendments to the tax code are looking to resolve the issue of numerous incomplete construction sites by offering incentives to companies who will dismantle unfinished buildings across the country and build new ones on the same site.
The Labour Conditions Inspection Department carried out a total of 1,254 inspections and reinspections at construction sites in 2019, says the Ministry of Health.
Georgian real estate developer m2 will complete the construction of a residential building in Saburtalo district of capital city of Tbilisi after about 12 years of suspended construction by construction company Olympic Star, announces Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze.
A total of 10,095 building permits covering 7.4 million square metres were granted in Georgia throughout 2021, the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) revealed today.
The Georgian government will offer developer companies on the Georgian market guaranteed construction orders to ensure 1-2 percent additional economic growth through attraction of new finances from banks for the developers.
The Asian Development Bank has approved a $100 million policy-based loan to deepen Georgia’s reforms to fiscal management, capital markets and the country’s pension system, the bank announced on Thursday.