Moskau – One tenth of Moscow’s residential space is set to be demolished in the coming years. The old, prefabricated buildings will be replaced by new buildings – all against the will of the residents.

Many of Moscow’s residents are worried about a new law that will allow cities to demolish entire residential blocks while severely limiting legal avenues for residents to oppose this. As the daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported, the idea of building new apartment blocks in Moscow comes from the Russian president Vladimir Putin and will now be carried out by Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

By the end of 2018, Moscow plans to demolish 8,000 residential buildings with 600,000 flats, which corresponds to one tenth of the city’s residential space. Many of these are prefabricated buildings built in the years following the Second World War. The new buildings will cost around CHF 60 billion to construct.

Residents initially embraced the idea, but this has since given way to concerns, and there are more and more protests at public hearings. This is because only a third of the new residential space will be rented to the current residents of the prefabricated buildings. The rest will go towards the city’s new residents. Those affected now fear that they will have to move from their affordable flats into expensive ones or switch to high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city.

The city in contrast calls this an improvement for its people as it will create not only new buildings but also a better infrastructure. Plans include pedestrian zones, and the new residential buildings will be designed individually.