In what form should the demolition of old buildings be carried out in the capital? |
About 15 years ago Azerbaijan started to get big incomes from oil and Baku’s face started to change against this background.
Major landscaping and construction works were carried out in the capital, infrastructure projects were implemented, and a large number of multi-storey residential buildings were built in recent years.
In most cases, these buildings were built due to the demolition of old 1-2-story private houses that have long expired, and this process is still ongoing. However, experience shows that the process of demolishing old houses, relocating residents, and providing apartments to citizens in newly built buildings is not easy. Dissatisfaction arises between people and entrepreneurs.
In what form should the demolition of old buildings be carried out in Baku?
Real estate market expert Elnur Farzaliyev shared his opinion.
The expert says that dissatisfaction between construction companies and citizens during the demolition of out-of-date buildings is one of the most urgent problems of the real estate market.
“By order of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 86, since 2016, the process of demolition of buildings that have expired in Baku and their replacement with new buildings has been started. Since that year, many buildings in Baku were demolished and new ones were built and handed over to citizens. Most of the old buildings in Baku have expired. Construction companies started demolishing buildings with large courtyards. For this reason, the demolition of buildings that have reached the end of their service life has stopped. In the next stage, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MFA) began to allow the demolition of buildings registered as damaged. In Baku, there are not only multi-apartment residential buildings in a state of emergency, but also individual courtyard houses. On Tabriz Street, in Yasamal, in the area known as “Papanin”, there are old courtyard houses that have reached the end of their service life and spoil the overall aesthetic appearance of the city. They have been demolished and multi-storey buildings are planned to be built instead,” he said.
According to E. Farzaliyev, the primary reason for the problems experienced during the demolition of old buildings is that citizens do not trust the construction company:
“The construction company is negotiating with citizens to demolish old buildings. At this time, in most cases, citizens do not trust construction companies. The citizen is somewhat right here. Construction companies receive all documents related to the demolition of old buildings from the relevant government agencies. If the documents are not collected, the building is in a state of disrepair MFAwithout the opinion of, if construction is not allowed, the old building cannot be demolished and a new one built. The biggest mistake of the companies is that they do not familiarize the citizens with those documents. I think that if the building is in a state of disrepair and needs to be demolished and a new one built, if all the documents related to its state of disrepair, the order and project of the building have been collected, and if these permits are given by the relevant state institutions, then the representatives of those state institutions, not the construction companies, should negotiate with the citizens. That representative should inform the citizen that we, as a state agency, have decided to demolish this building and we guarantee that this building will be demolished on such and such a date, and a new one will be handed over to you on such and such a date. What worries citizens more is the lack of this guarantee. If this guarantee is given by the government agency, the residents will vacate their houses and move to rented houses without any problems. Because this process is also beneficial for residents. So, they will be given a more valuable and better renovated apartment than the new building and the previous one. Certain criteria should be set in this process. It should be determined how many square meter apartments will be given in exchange for which apartment.
The expert said that there are buildings in Baku where some of the residents have moved, but the demolition of the building cannot be carried out because a few residents have not.
“The construction company to those displaced residents mandatory pays the rent. On the other hand, the company makes a commitment to them that the building will be built and handed over to you for a certain period of time. But the failure of other residents to move out of the building violates the construction company’s commitment. And you see, 4 years have passed, but the residents cannot move to their homes. State institutions should take steps to speed up the process of dismantling buildings and courtyard houses that have expired. If the construction companies are not interested in this demolition, there will be no one to demolish that building, and these dilapidated buildings will become even more dilapidated and become a source of danger.”
“Not long ago, there were reports that 132,000 buildings will be demolished in Baku. These reports are completely false. Because there are only 11,000 buildings in the capital that have expired. Generally speaking, 20Since 2000, up to two thousand new buildings have been built in Baku. There are other buildings with a maximum of 15 thousand. So today Baku and Absheron there are no 132,000 buildings in its territory”, E. Farzaliyev added. (Report)