Mykolaiv City Council fails to support inclusion of 15 more objects in the list for privatisation

The Mykolaiv City Council did not support the inclusion of 15 more objects in the list for privatisation. Photo: archive NikVesti

The Mykolaiv City Council did not approve the inclusion of 15 more municipal property objects in the list for privatisation.

The decision was made by deputies at a session meeting, according to NikVesti.

According to Tetiana Dymytrova, Deputy Head of the Communal Property Department of the Mykolaiv City Council, these are non-residential premises that have not been used for their intended purpose for a long time, are useless and create a financial burden.

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«The main goal of adopting these 15 draft decisions is to increase revenues to the city budget and clean up the property that is on the balance sheet of municipal enterprises, which is a burden for them and is not used in their activities. Based on the fact that we put up for auction objects at their final book value, today the value of these objects is 7 million 673 thousand hryvnias. That is, we can get somewhere around 8 million hryvnias,» said Tatyana Dimitrova.

According to her, most of these objects were proposed for inclusion by the tenants or balance sheet holders themselves. Before submitting them to the session, they checked whether the property was subject to restrictions, including whether it was not residential, had the status of a cultural monument, or was not on the list of objects prohibited for privatisation.

«If the tenant wants to buy out the premises, they can submit an application to the department, we will prepare a draft and submit it to the session. But the final decision is always up to the deputies,» added Tetiana Dymytrova.

She also clarified that when compiling the list, not only the condition of the property is taken into account, but also the possible further use of the objects for the needs of the city: «Maybe there is something so strategically important that we will not be able to sell it.»

Regarding leased facilities, Tetiana Dymytrova noted that in the event of a change of ownership, the tenant retains the right to stay until the end of the contract, but does not receive any benefits during privatisation.

«The new owner has no right to raise the rent. It remains in accordance with all the terms of the agreement, as it was, and it was paid to the city budget,» she concluded.

The decision did not receive the required number of votes: 9 deputies for, 1 deputy against, 17 abstentions, 27 present in total.

As a reminder, in May, the city council approved a list of 114 municipal property objects to be privatised. This list was approved at the second attempt. According to the draft decision, the proceeds from the sale are to be used to strengthen the defence capability of Mykolaiv and the region.

The already approved list includes:

• 46 municipal property objects that are not in use;

• 65 objects with tenants (they will be sold under existing lease agreements);

• 2 objects with inherent improvements for which the tenants are to be compensated;

• 1 property under construction with a starting price of 2 million hryvnias.

Moratorium on privatisation of municipal property

The mayor of Mykolaiv recalled how in 2016 he vetoed the city council's decision to privatise 20 properties. He noted that now privatisation issues will be resolved at auctions, and the highest bidder will win.

Back in 2017, the Mykolaiv City Council and the state-owned enterprise «Setam» signed a memorandum for public auctions for the sale of municipal property.

In 2021, Mykolaiv launched the process of leasing and selling municipal property through the ProZorro public procurement system. In June 2021, Vice Mayor of Mykolaiv Vitalii Lukov said that there are about 3,500 properties in Mykolaiv that belong to the community. Of these, about 1200-1300 can be leased. The rest of the city is used for healthcare, education, government offices, etc. According to the deputy mayor, such auctions have helped to raise the cost of renting premises tenfold.

Also in 2021, a draft decision on the privatisation of 117 communal property objects through auction, including utility rooms, buildings of former boiler houses, medical facilities, and basements, appeared on the website of the Mykolaiv City Council.

At the same time, in January 2024, the mayor stated that Mykolaiv was not far «from privatising property to fill the budget. In May 2024, the mayor of Mykolaiv said that he was working with the deputies on the possibility of selling municipal property through auctions.

In March 2025, the city council announced that it planned to sell 114 municipal property through an auction. These include former boiler houses, architectural monuments and non-residential premises.