The eVidnovlennia housing certificate: how to buy a home

Who receives a certificate

It goes to owners whose housing was destroyed by hostilities after 24 February 2022, on three conditions: the property stands on territory controlled by Ukraine, a commission has declared it unfit to live in, and ownership is registered in the state register for every owner. The application goes through the Diia app, the Diia portal or a public service centre, in this order: notice about the destroyed property, application for compensation, commission decision, reservation of funds, deal before a notary.

The amount follows a Cabinet formula applied to the commission assessment, so no two certificates match: the sum depends on the home that was lost, not on the price of the one being sought.

Why Odesa is a frequent choice

The certificate is not tied to the region where the destroyed home stood: any city in Ukraine qualifies. Odesa attracts holders because both segments are deep enough to choose from. We list 6 918 properties for sale. A metre costs 1 450 $ in new builds and 1 210 $ on resale.

A certificate covers both segments, so the choice turns on whether you have somewhere to live now. If the home costs more than the certificate, the difference may be paid from your own funds; the cheapest listing in our catalogue starts at 4 700 $.

Buying on the resale market with a certificate

The programme sets no limit on the age of the building: a certificate is accepted for an apartment in a house of any construction year, unlike eOselia, where the resale market is open only to certain categories and only up to a given building age. Resale is therefore a full option here, and often the faster one, because the home is finished and ready to move into after the deal.

What needs checking differs from a new build: ownership history, registered residents, encumbrances and seizures, utility debts, remodelling approvals, and the technical state of the building. Clean seller documents are a condition rather than a preference: the state transfers the money, and a doubtful package stops the payment after signing.

The deadlines that break deals

There are 30 days between the reservation of funds and the signing of the contract; miss it and the reservation must be made again, by which time the seller may be gone. Before the deal, ownership of the destroyed property has to be terminated through a notary with state registrar powers or a public service centre. A home bought this way cannot be sold, gifted or transferred for five years.

Why sellers hesitate, and what we do about it

Refusals rarely come from the buyer's paperwork. They come from the payment order: the seller is paid after the deal, and for someone selling one home to buy another that is an unclear risk. We run these purchases from the buyer's side: we check the seller's documents and encumbrances, ask the owner in advance whether a certificate is acceptable, assemble the package before the reservation, and keep the 30 days under control. The programme hotline is 1545, though it will not say whether a given seller accepts certificates.

The calculator: certificate, top up and the gap

The calculator on this page works differently from a credit one: there are no payments, because a certificate is never repaid. It works out something else: how much of the price the certificate covers and how much has to come from your own funds. Two fields, the certificate amount and the property price, and the result is the gap that most often decides the search.

An example without figures: when the home costs a few per cent more than the certificate, the gap is usually manageable; when it costs a third more, the realistic choice lies in another segment or district. So the calculation belongs before the viewings rather than after, and it is worth setting two price limits rather than one address.

The certificate amount does not depend on the city: a commission calculates it from your destroyed home, and the purchase may be made in any region. Odesa is the city where we do the searching, and where the resale metre differs from the new build one enough that the same top up buys a different floor area.