Expert: Kazan Families Prefer Land Over Cash Compensation

Last year, only one large family in Kazan decided to refuse the land plot they were queuing for in favor of a one-time payment of 200,000 rubles (approximately $2,000 at current rates). This significantly differs from the situation in Naberezhnye Chelny, where 28 families expressed such a desire. We asked an expert why this support measure proved so unpopular, especially in Kazan.

Financial expert and strategy director at investment company Finam, Yaroslav Kabakov, believes that the peculiarity of Kazan lies in the high cost of land plots, so there are almost no takers to trade land for 200,000 rubles (approximately $2,000).

«In the republic»s capital, land is perceived as a much more valuable and long-term asset: even plots in Kazan«s suburbs have high potential market value, which is several times higher than the one-time payment, so families prefer to wait, counting on either building a house or future capital for their children. Against this background, the monetary compensation appears too small and unequal to giving up land,» Kabakov noted.

In his opinion, Kazan residents have already formed the expectation that a land plot is the «real» support measure from the state, while money is an expendable resource without long-term effect.

«The low popularity of payments in Kazan is explained not by a formal lack of interest, but by a conscious choice in favor of a more burdensome but potentially more profitable asset, which in the capital market remains land,» the expert is confident.

As reported by the Ministry of Land and Property of the Republic of Tatarstan, the only family that in 2025 applied for a monetary payment instead of a plot was ultimately denied. The reason was not specified by the department. This year, no such applications have been received yet.

At the same time, in Naberezhnye Chelny over the past year, 28 large families decided to take the monetary payment instead of plots, 21 of them received a positive response. Since the beginning of 2026, two such requests have been made and both were satisfied.

These are still small numbers against the backdrop of a multi-thousand queue across the republic. But nevertheless, the process is accelerating (it was only launched in November) faster than in Kazan.

Kabakov noted that in Autograd (the automotive city, referring to Naberezhnye Chelny), the situation is completely different, as the cost of land is lower, and the wait for plots is often accompanied by infrastructural and territorial difficulties. It is worth noting that families are often offered plots in residential areas without roads, kindergartens, schools, or in districts remote from Chelny.

«The payment appears to be a more rational and quick solution to current family tasks,» added Kabakov.

The initiative to allocate compensation to families instead of plots was put forward in August 2025 during a report by the head of the executive committee of Naberezhnye Chelny, Farid Salakhov. At the October meeting of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, it became known that the budget of Tatarstan for 2025 and 2026 has allocated 500 million rubles (approximately $5 million at current rates) for these purposes.

The one-time payment instead of receiving a plot currently amounts to 200,000 rubles (approximately $2,000). Earlier, in a conversation with 116.RU, a lawyer expressed the opinion that the new support measure will be in demand in Tatarstan. However, the amount of the payment did not satisfy everyone. In November 2025, dissatisfied families with children from Naberezhnye Chelny complained to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The applicants stated that to purchase housing in nearby districts of the city even with a mortgage, a minimum of one million rubles is required.