«This is a free balance. We'll distribute it in 2026», Mykolaiv City Council explains when ₴60 million from privatisation will be allocated to the army

Mykolaiv City Council explains when the army will receive ₴60 million from the sale of property. Photo: NikVesti

During the sale of municipal property, the budget of Mykolaiv received over 60 million hryvnias. This money is a free balance that will be redistributed in 2026.

This was discussed during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council on 30 October, according to NikVesti.

Tetiana Dmytrova, deputy head of the municipal property department, noted the changes that are supposed to supplement the list of small-scale privatisation of municipal property. We are talking about premises with an area of 139.4 square metres at 186/2 Tsentralnyi Avenue.

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«To date, we have held auctions for 52 objects. We have concluded 38 purchase and sale agreements, the cost of the auctions is 72 million 426 thousand 775 hryvnias, we have received 73 million 241 thousand 86 hryvnias, and transferred 60 million 473 thousand 128 hryvnias to the city budget,» the official said.

The deputy, Tetiana Dombrovska, asked whether the funds had already been transferred and to which military units, as the initiative to sell the property was originally intended to transfer money to the army. However, the official replied that the department only earns money and sends it to the city budget.

Vira Svyatelyk, director of the finance department, explained that the funds are currently being received as a free balance, which will be distributed next year.

«The funds go to the community budget. As of 1 January 2026, they will remain as a free balance and will be distributed at the request of the city council members. We need to decide how, who will be the main administrator of the budget funds, and we will understand where we are allocating these funds when distributing the free balance next year,» she said.

In particular, during the discussion, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych asked Tetiana Dmytrova how much the price of an object sold by the city at an auction increases on average.

«On average, from 3 to 5 times,» said Tetiana Dmytrova.

«These are good figures. Do we have a record?» the mayor asked.

«We do have a record. It is 22 Tsentralnyi Avenue. It's $3,000 per square metre,» she answered.

«That's great».

«This is the level of prices at which objects on Khreshchatyk are sold. We talked to the sites, they are shocked that we have such a price. This is a building located on the corner of Tsentralnyi and 8 March avenues,» the official said.

Privatisation in Mykolaiv

In May 2025, the city council approved a list of 114 municipal property objects to be privatised. This list was adopted 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.

On 10 July, the city put up for auction 8 municipal property objects with a total starting price of almost 4.8 million hryvnias. Later, the city council approved the sale of another 15 municipal facilities to be privatised. The total starting price of the lots is about 8 million hryvnias.

In August, Mykolaiv's budget received 62 million hryvnias from the sale of municipal property.

Read also the article «NikVesti «Large-scale privatisation in Mykolaiv: what is behind the city authorities' plans to sell more than 100 objects and why this decision is worthy of attention».

Moratorium on privatisation of municipal property

In 2016, the mayor of Mykolaiv vetoed the city council's decision to privatise 20 objects. He noted that privatisation issues would now be resolved at auctions, and the highest bidder would 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, the Mykolaiv City Council published a draft decision on the privatisation of 117 municipal property objects through an auction, including utility rooms, buildings of former boiler houses, medical facilities, and basements.

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 addition, in January 2025, the municipal property department of the city council announced an auction for the lease of part of the premises of the Teacher's House. The starting price was 400 hryvnias. As of 30 January 2025, the auction did not take place due to the lack of bidders.