First Pancake Goes Lumpy or Who Got Preferential Housing

Baku/09.05.18/Turan: In Azerbaijan, the electronic sale of preferential apartments has come to an end at the very beginning, although it was planned that this process will last until August 7 this year.

Recall that on May 7, the State Agency for Housing (MIDA) put up for sale 260 1-3-room apartments fully renovated and equipped with kitchen furniture and heating system. We are talking about apartments in the residential area of ​​four high-rise buildings built in the Yasamal district of the capital at 8 Outer Circular Road. Literally in an hour, i.е. having lasted from 10.00 to 11.00, the sale was over.

According to the announced rules, the purchase of this category of housing is carried out through the electronic system Preferential Housing created on the portal Electronic Government (www.e-gov.az). The right to purchase housing belongs to citizens who have received an electronic cabinet in the system Preferential Housing. All applicants who have an e-cabinet in the Preferential Housing system are equal in their choice of apartments regardless of the date of registration or the number of the office.

Instructed about this and following the rules, at exactly the time specified (10.00 local time) people tried to enter the e-system to select the desired apartment. But they did not succeed. Due to a flurry of calls, the system was overloaded and literally paralyzed.

One of the buyers from the category of civil servants, who has an e-cabinet in this system, told the website www.oxu.az that at 10.00 he entered the website www.e-gov.az.

"I chose an apartment. But the screen showed information that a procedure for filling an order has a technical error. My second attempt also ended with nothing. At 10.30 I again carried out this procedure, and a notice appeared on the portal about the apartment already sold. At 11.00 of the 260 apartments for sale there were only 8. I wanted to choose one of them, but I did not succeed," the frustrated owner of preferential housing shared his bitter experience.

According to MIDA, the rights of more than 8,000 people to purchase housing of this category were confirmed and conditions for creating an e-cabinet were provided for each of the applicants. But, as it turned out, on May 7 the system Preferential Housing registered about 40,000 people instead of 8,000, which caused its collapse.

"In a short time, a significant part of the apartments were sold. However, I received a notice that I can buy housing. This notification must be confirmed. Due to the fact that the Confirm section does not work, it is impossible to receive SMS from ASAN Imza. On the other hand, we were told that the first person to receive the notice would be the one who would buy the apartment. I want to say that other candidates can receive such notifications. But it is curious that some people have already received 7 notices. So, will they be able to buy 7 apartments?" the reader of www.oxu.az continues his story.

As the economist Vugar Bayramov commented on the situation, it was known in advance that the demand for 260 apartments would be high. As expected, 8,000 citizens tried to buy an apartment as quickly as possible. The obtained result showed that, although MİDA was ready for such a rush, unfortunately, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies was not up to par and was not ready for the "ninth wave" of applications. As a result, there were interruptions and problems in the electronic system in connection with obtaining an e-signature for the purchase of real estate.

According to Bayramov, it was necessary to test the e-system, especially since it was known about the great interest in this project.

"Preferential housing is an important social project for many residents of Azerbaijan, so it is important to think through the details of this process. It is necessary to find out the reasons for failures and malfunctions in the system and to enable people to confirm their e-signatures for the purchase of an apartment. Until the end of the year, 1,600 apartments will be offered for sale in the same Yasamal residential area, and during this time it is necessary to improve the operation of the system and increase its functionality," the expert stressed.

Meanwhile, the State Agency for Housing and the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies issued a joint statement on the problems that arose during the selection of apartments for sale through the electronic system Preferential Housing. The statement says that due to the increased demand of citizens, the portal Electronic Government and the Preferential Housing system have been overloaded.

It is noted that on May 7, 2018 by 11:50 the number of applications in the Preferential Housing system reached 60,184, and the number of simultaneous applications exceeded 16,000.

The Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies and the agency promptly solved the technical problems, the statement said.--0 --