Housing and refurbishment costs to drop

The impact of guest workers’ return is not yet felt in Belarus, but economists maintain that hundreds of thousands of construction workers from Belarus will come back home after the New Year due the consequences of the financial turmoil in the world . The reason is not the end of the construction season but the world financial crisis.

“Banks in Russia have stopped issuing loans to build housing”, explains economist Leanid Zaika.”The works have been suspended. Large Russian companies make their major staff and managers work part-time. Naturally, guest workers become unnecessary by default in this situation. Nobody will be spending money on them. Guest workers, including Belarusians, will come home. Actually, there are around 600-700,000 Belarusians working in Russia”.

But the return of construction workers will have obvious pluses. Competition will grow at the domestic construction market. The costs of refurbishment and housing will have to go down.

“Guest workers return to become unemployed in the beginning. They will be trying to find jobs”, Leanid Zaika continues. But the costs of repair works will be reduced, because labor force market will be overloaded. It would make sense now to wait out and not to refurbish our apartments. It is expensive now, but it will be getting cheaper later”.

Meanwhile, the news about the return of guest workers came across the district centers around Belarus. Several hundreds of guest workers could return to Shklou alone.

“Around 400 men left Shklou for Moscow and St Petersburg to look for better pastures”, says guest worker Ryhor Kastusyow. He works as a safety engineer with a construction company. “In the small towns like ours, only women remain. But after the New Year, many will return. There will be a huge reduction in the number of people employed in the construction sector”.

Yulian Navumik, ERB correspondent in the Brest region, also talked to some families of guest workers. They said some had already been fired, while the best workers are sent for leaves up to one month.

In the Hantsavichy district, Brest region, the return of husbands back home will make wives quieter, because some return in coffins sometimes. But where can one get money for living? In the collective farm of the village of Khatynichy, Hantsavichy district, there are only jobs for Br200,000 ($100).

“My husband and son have traveled to Russia for two years to work”, Halina Syamyonauna from Khatynichy says. “They make an average of $1000 per month. They may get paid or maybe not. From our village, two boys died in a car accident in Russia. Two more got drowned. Last summer, one man was killed by electricity there. I am talking about our village only, but there is a lot of similar cases in the district…”