The State Duma will consider in February a bill that would allow the use of biometrics for online real estate transactions. According to sources, the initiative was supported by the Accounts Chamber and the legal department of the lower house of parliament.
The bill, developed by Rosreestr and submitted to the State Duma in December last year, proposes amendments to the law "On State Registration of Real Estate." It will allow the use of the Unified Biometric System (UBS) for submitting documents for registration of real estate objects electronically.
This will help protect citizens from fraudsters who can remotely sell apartments without the personal presence of the owners, according to the State Duma. Rosreestr stated that the new measure using biometrics will strengthen existing protection mechanisms.
Developers have different views on the initiative to introduce biometrics in real estate transactions. Ruslan Syrtsov, Managing Director of Metrium, believes that additional steps may increase the risk of transactions falling through.
In his opinion, in some cases, the possibility of a remote transaction may be useful, for example, if the parties have reached an agreement, but the transaction can only be carried out later. However, he believes that such situations are rare.
Buying a home is a serious step, and Russians prefer to go through all the stages in person. In addition, cases of personal data leaks have become more frequent in recent years, which also raises concerns.
At the same time, Dmitry Golev, Commercial Director of Optima Development, assesses the initiative positively.
It can really significantly reduce the number of fraudulent schemes and make transactions more transparent.
The expert noted that, for various reasons, about a third of Russians still distrust this form of information collection and verification. He added that preliminary public discussions on this issue are probably necessary.
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