The City Council has approved the development of a new land valuation for Mykolaiv

Meeting of the Mykolaiv City Council. Photo: NikVesti

Members of the Mykolaiv City Council cast 29 votes to update the city’s standard monetary valuation, on which land tax and land rent costs depend. Technical documentation, costing around 3.5 million hryvnias, must now be drawn up. However, approval of the valuation does not guarantee that the amount of payments to the budget will not change.

The decision was adopted today, 9 April, at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council, NikVesti reports.

Yevhen Poliakov, Director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at Mykolaiv City Council and the city’s chief architect, stated that legislation requires amendments to be made and a standard monetary valuation to be drawn up every five years. In Mykolaiv, it was approved seven years ago.

«In other words, this is not a matter of choice, but a legal requirement. We must work in accordance with it, as this ensures that the rent for the relevant plots paid to the city of Mykolaiv is up to date and compliant with the law. We have court cases relating to the previous regulatory monetary valuation, which has been approved. The calculation method has changed; it has become simpler, with no room for inaccuracies during its review,» said Yevhen Poliakov.

Chief Architect of Mykolaiv Yevhen Polyakov. Screenshot from the broadcast

The city’s chief architect added that for the regulatory monetary valuation to come into effect on 1 January 2027, it must be published in its approved form by 15 July this year.

«As we begin this work, we now realise that, if approved and funded, it will most likely come into effect not on 1 January next year, but a year later, so we need to start the process now,» noted Yevhen Poliakov.

Councillor Olena Kiseliova asked what the estimated cost of developing the technical documentation for the regulatory monetary valuation would be, and consequently what the budgetary expenditure would be.

«The estimated cost of the competitive procurement process is around 3.5 million hryvnias. Accordingly, the amount is expected to decrease depending on the specific procurement,» replied the city’s chief architect.

When asked what the average base cost per square metre of land was, Yevhen Poliakov replied that, including indexation, it stood at 550 hryvnias.

«That is both true and not true, because the analysis shows that the base value for taxation is around 1,200 hryvnias per square metre. Is there a possibility that, following the updated regulatory monetary valuation, taxes and charges will rise in the city of Mykolaiv? Do you think it will remain the same or change?» asked Olena Kiseliova.

According to Yevhen Poliakov, an analysis of the normative monetary valuation in other cities shows adjustments within a 10% range: either a decrease or an increase.

«It is incorrect to speak of an increase,» added the city’s chief architect.

While the councillors were taking part in the vote, Yevhen Poliakov said that the procedure for approving the regulatory monetary valuation is lengthy: technical documentation must be prepared, published, and a regulatory act procedure carried out, after which the city council must consider approval for each zone in Mykolaiv.

«This is a direct requirement of the law; it should have been done two years ago. If we start now, we will most likely not manage to complete it this year, because the regulatory act procedure and the need for funding have deadlines. But we will begin this work; we will have a prepared decision and the groundwork in place to complete it by 15 July next year,» said the city’s chief architect.

In the end, 29 out of 39 councillors voted in favour, so the decision was passed: the city council approved the preparation of technical documentation for the development of a normative monetary valuation of land.

It should be noted that land tax, rent for state — and municipally-owned land, and , consequently, revenue for the city budget depend on the normative monetary valuation. The valuation was last updated seven years ago.