How to buy an apartment in Cherkasy with eOselia in 2026: who qualifies for 3% and 7%, property requirements and a step-by-step guide

The sequence from idea to keys. Each step is explained below.

• Check which category you fall into, 3% or 7%, and that you do not own housing above the norm.
• Work out the down payment: at least 20% of the price, or 10% if you are 25 or younger.
• Apply in the Diia app to your chosen bank and wait for the loan offer.
• Look for an apartment that meets the requirements: building age, floor area, price per m².
• Get the apartment approved by the bank: valuation, insurance, document checks.
• Sign the purchase contract and the mortgage agreement at a notary and collect the keys.

eOselia is an affordable mortgage programme whose terms were approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 856 of 2 August 2022. Loans are issued by participating banks, and the state-owned Ukrainian Financial Housing Company (Ukrfinzhytlo) subsidises part of the rate for eligible groups. Applications are made only through Diia, and the list of participating banks and the current terms are published on eoselia.diia.gov.ua.

The programme operates throughout Ukraine except the temporarily occupied territories and areas of active fighting, so you can use eOselia in Cherkasy. What matters is that Cherkasy region is not on the list of regions with relaxed building-age rules (Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson). So for most buyers in Cherkasy only new builds qualify; more on that below.

The government has already adopted further changes to the programme (Resolution No. 1284 of 15 October 2026), which take effect on 20 January 2027. If you are planning a deal in 2027, ask your bank how they will affect you.

Only Ukrainian citizens can apply. The programme's base rate is 7% a year for the first 10 years and 10% from year eleven. For five priority groups the state subsidises part of the rate, bringing it to 3% for the first 10 years and 6% afterwards (Conditions, clauses 3 and 10). The 3% mortgage is available to:

• contract and mobilised service members, staff of the SBU, National Guard, Border Guard, emergency service and police, prosecutors, detectives of NABU, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Economic Security Bureau and other listed bodies, and their family members;
• medical staff of state and municipal healthcare facilities;
• teachers at state and municipal educational institutions;
• research and academic staff of state and municipal institutions;
• war veterans and family members of fallen veterans and Defenders of Ukraine.

At 7% (10% from year eleven) the loan is open to internally displaced persons, their first-degree relatives (other than spouses) buying a home for the displaced person, and any other citizens who own no housing or own less than the norm: 52.5 m² for one person, 73.5 m² for a family of two or three, plus 21 m² for each additional family member.

Housing in occupied territories and destroyed housing is not counted. But sales and gifts of housing in the 36 months before the application are checked: if you recently sold an apartment and, together with what you own now, exceed the norm, you will be refused. You also cannot have another eOselia loan, current or repaid, except as the Conditions allow, or be under sanctions.

The core terms are the same for every category (Conditions, clauses 8 and 10):

The bank calculates the loan amount from your official income as shown in state registers. If part of your income does not appear there (transfers from abroad, for example), you will need to prove it to the bank separately. Before you start looking, find out how much you can borrow and add your own contribution: that is your real budget.

• down payment: at least 20% of the price, or at least 10% if the borrower is 25 or younger;
• maximum term: 20 years (240 months);
• age: at least 18 when signing and no more than 70 at full repayment; some banks set a lower limit;
• bank fees over the whole term: no more than 1% of the loan amount in total;
• mandatory insurance of the apartment for its full appraised value; the premium is capped at 0.25% a year, or 1.25% if you add war-risk cover.

The key restriction in Cherkasy is the age of the building. In Cherkasy region, eOselia covers an apartment in a building under construction or in a building commissioned no more than three years before the contract date. This applies both to the 3% priority groups and to the general 7% mortgage. For IDPs and their relatives the limit is different: the building must have been commissioned no more than 20 years earlier (Conditions, clause 9(3)).

So eOselia for resale housing in Cherkasy means either a resale apartment in a building completed no more than three years ago or, for IDPs, an apartment in a building up to 20 years old. Classic Soviet-era panel and brick blocks do not qualify for anyone. Check the commissioning date against the declaration or certificate in the state construction e-system (e-construction.gov.ua), not the seller's word.

Other property requirements (Conditions, clauses 9 and 10):

• Floor area. The standard area for an apartment is 52.5 m² for one person, 73.5 m² for a family of two or three and +21 m² for each additional member, up to 115.5 m². For housing completed within the last three years the norm may be exceeded by up to 10%, with the difference paid from your own funds; for older housing it may not be exceeded at all.
• Price per m². The cap is the regional indirect construction cost, approved quarterly by the Ministry of Development, multiplied by two. The price may exceed the cap by no more than 10%, with the excess covered by the down payment. Ask your bank for the current cap in Cherkasy region.
• Valuation. The price may not exceed the valuation by a licensed appraiser or the bank's appraiser. If the contract price is higher, you pay the difference from your own money and the loan is based on the appraised value.
• What you cannot buy: temporary-housing stock, listed architectural monuments, dachas and garden houses, and a house on land outside the residential and public development category.

You apply for eOselia in the Diia app: choose your category, list your family members and the bank you want, and sign the application with Diia.Signature. Most of the data, including income, property and IDP or veteran status, is pulled from state registers, so make sure your records there are up to date before you apply. You can only have one application at a time: to apply to another bank, you must cancel the first one.

Do not choose a bank on advertising alone: compare income requirements, age limits, insurance and valuation costs, which Cherkasy developers the bank already works with, and whether it has accredited the residential complex you want.

After reviewing the application, the bank sends a loan offer to your Diia app, and you then visit the bank in person to proceed. From that point you know your amount and can start looking. The order matters: bank decision first, deposit second. Otherwise it is easy to lose money on an apartment the bank will not approve.

In Cherkasy, eOselia mostly fits apartments in new builds: complexes under construction or buildings completed in the last three years. New builds can be found across the city, including Mytnytsia, the Centre, Khimselyshche and the South-Western district, but for each one check the commissioning date, the floor area and the price per m². A building under construction must be accredited by the bank; the list of accredited projects is published on the programme website and by participating banks.

A practical tip: leave yourself some margin. If your norm is 52.5 m², a 55 m² one-bedroom may still pass with a top-up, but a 60 m² one will not. The same goes for price: in a new build sold “with renovation”, the finishing can push the price per m² over the cap.

Once you have found an apartment, the bank orders a valuation and checks the documents: the seller's title or the property rights to an off-plan apartment, encumbrances, spousal consent and the building's commissioning. You should run the same checks yourself; our guide to buying an apartment in Cherkasy covers them in detail. Budget for the valuation, insurance and notary separately from the down payment.

If the valuation comes in below the price, you have three options: pay the difference, negotiate a discount with the seller or look for another apartment. So agree with the seller that the deal depends on bank approval and put it in the preliminary contract.

On the day of the deal you sign the purchase contract and the mortgage agreement with the bank at the notary; the mortgage agreement must also be notarised (Law on Mortgage, Art. 18). The down payment and the loan are transferred to the seller by bank transfer, and the notary registers your ownership and the mortgage in the State Register of Real Property Rights.

If this is your first home, you do not pay the 1% pension levy; otherwise it is 1% of the contract price. After the deal, avoid late payments: if a payment is more than 30 calendar days late, the state rate subsidy is suspended, and after 90 days the right to it is lost (Conditions, clause 29).

The hardest part of eOselia is finding an apartment that passes every filter at once: building age, floor area, price per m², valuation and clean documents. We shortlist exactly such options in Cherkasy for your category and loan amount, check the building's commissioning date and the seller's documents, help with the preliminary contract and accompany the deal to the notary. The apartments-for-sale catalogue brings together current OLX listings and the agency's own properties.

Every buyer who requests a property from the sale section gets a code for a $100 discount on agency services when signing a purchase contract through Svit Nerukhomosti. Details are on the offer page; call +38 (093) 627-96-00.