Armenia to spend $2 billion on housing refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh

Housing for Karabakh Armenians

Armenia‘s government has approved a housing program for displaced individuals from Nagorno-Karabakh, to be implemented over five years. The program includes three components: providing certificates for purchasing apartments or individual houses, issuing certificates for building private homes, and assisting with mortgage repayments.

According to minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan, families with Armenian citizenship, including minors, are eligible for the program.

The initiative covers those displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh due to the 2020 war and the military operation conducted by Azerbaijan on September 19-20, 2023.

Approximately 25,000 families are estimated to benefit from the housing project. Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan described it as an investment project costing around $2 billion at today’s exchange rates.

3 stages of project implementation

The first stage, starting this year, will benefit:

• Families with 3 or more underage children seeking to purchase an apartment or individual house,
• Families with two or more underage children opting to construct an individual house,
• Families of deceased soldiers who were the primary breadwinners, as well as those with members with 1st or 2nd disability groups,
• Families with any composition who are creditworthy and can obtain additional bank loans covering at least 50% of the total amount, thus contributing their own funds.

The second stage of the project will commence no later than January 1, 2026.

The third stage will begin no later than January 1, 2027.

The cost of housing cannot exceed 143 thousand dollars

The cost of housing for both construction and purchase of an apartment or private house cannot exceed 55 million drams [$143,000]. Another requirement is that the living space per family member must be at least 12 square meters.

Regarding the assistance provided by the government, it will vary depending on where the family intends to settle.

Each family member will receive three to five million drams depending on the chosen location:

“Five million drams (approximately $13,000) will be provided for settlement in 242 urban and rural areas. Four million drams (approximately $10,000) will be provided for settlement in 148 urban and rural areas. Three million drams (approximately $7,800) will be provided for settlement in other locations, excluding the first and second zones of Yerevan (the city center)“, explained minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan.

A total of 390 settlements have been selected, comprising 40 percent of the country’s settlements, according to Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan.

The support for mortgage repayment will amount to 2 million drams ($5,200) per family member.

Who cannot participate in the program?

Two groups of resettled people cannot benefit from this project:

The first group consists of families who have already received assistance under the “State Assistance Program for Forced Resettlement from Certain Districts of Nagorno-Karabakh.” This includes 4,308 families who had to move to Armenia during the 44-day war in 2020. They were unable to return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh as their settlements came under Azerbaijani control. These 15,338 individuals have already received certificates for housing acquisition.

The second group comprises families in which at least one member already owns property in Armenia.