The largest owners of shopping centers asked the Federal government to pass a bill allowing tenants unilaterally and without penalty, terminate the contracts. The amendments will allow tenants to blackmail the owners of the objects and eventually destroy the industry, warn market participants. Instead, developers are asked to include the retail market in the list of victims of coronavirus industries, subsidize the repayment of credits and delay the taxes.Russian Council of shopping centers (RCSC; it includes major industry investors, including ENKA, PPF Real Estate, Malltech, Accent Capital, etc.) appealed to the state Duma with a request to abandon the bill to allow tenants to unilaterally terminate the contracts. The bill was introduced on may 7 and suggests that the termination of the lease shall occur without fines with tenants. The owners targetrow will have to return the tenants security payment provided by the contract.In his address, the RCSC draws attention to the fact that the developers already gave the tenants significant discounts on payments for April-may. The average rent now is only 10-15% of the contract. At the same time with virtually no income, developers still bear the costs of maintaining targetrow in working condition, payment of taxes and maintenance loans.The adoption of the bill means that the industry will be destroyed, insist RCSC, as the amendments will allow the tenants to blackmail developers in trying to lease terms, “is not justified by the actual situation and make the job of shopping centers is impossible.” The collapse of the industry is threatened by the fact that banks are unable to 2 trillion of defaulted debt, and 350 billion rubles of direct losses interest, warn the authors. But if the objects will go to banks and government agencies, they will not be able to restore their capitalisation even in the medium term, confident in the RCSC.In addition, developers are asked to cancel taxes on property and land, as well as the rent for the land at the time of a pandemic plus one quarter; to subsidize interest rates on loans at the expense of the Federal budget and the banks, and the payment of the loan to defer; to postpone the payment of tax on profit in the first quarter of the year, and payment of the VAT for six months. In this case, the revenue loss targetrow may be limited to some 1.35 trillion and to get profit facilities will be able in a year.In the case if the developers will lose tenants because of cuts in wages and layoffs of employees targetrow and related sectors below the poverty line can be up to 6.3 million people, the RCSC. In the Board emphasize what is online trading and street retail due to the relatively small volumes will not compensate for the loss of space in shopping centers in the next ten years.“B” sent a request to the government and the Duma.Elizaveta Makarova
