Housing for IDPs in Cherkasy: how to rent a flat and what state support applies in 2026

Here is the short version of what exists today. Each programme is explained in more detail further down.

• IDP living allowance (Resolution No. 332): UAH 2,000 a month, or UAH 3,000 for children and people with disabilities; granted for six months and can be extended.
• Rent subsidy for IDPs (Resolution No. 1225): a pilot programme specifically for people renting under a lease. You cannot receive it together with the living allowance.
• Compensation for hosting IDPs (the Prykhystok programme, Resolution No. 333): UAH 450 per person per month, paid to owners who host IDPs free of charge. It does not apply to paid rentals.
• eOselia mortgages (for IDPs, a base rate of 7% a year for the first 10 years), state mortgage assistance for IDPs (Resolution No. 998) and housing vouchers for certain groups of IDPs from occupied territories are tools for buying a home, not for renting.
• Temporary accommodation (shelters): advice via the 1548 crisis hotline, which also handles IDP questions.

Start with the budget, and include move-in costs, not just the monthly rent. Many Cherkasy listings on OLX describe the same pattern: first month plus a security payment equal to one month's rent plus an agency fee. Svit Nerukhomosti's fee is 100% of one month's rent, paid by the tenant only after the lease is signed. As of 29 September 2026, the median asking price on OLX was UAH 16,000 a month for a one-room flat and UAH 22,000 for a two-room flat. These are asking prices, not deal prices; check for each flat whether utilities are included.

Next, decide what really matters: number of rooms, children or pets, commuting time, and how the flat copes with power cuts.

Where to look: agency catalogues, the big listing sites (OLX, DIM.RIA, LUN) and local Telegram channels. Under OLX real estate rules, a Private person label means the owner, while Business means an intermediary (an agent, realtor or the owner's representative) or an owner who lets several properties for income. On 29 September 2026, 87% of long-term flat listings in Cherkasy on OLX carried the Business label.

You can browse Svit Nerukhomosti flats and houses in our catalogue. To help a manager shortlist the right options, tell them upfront:

• who will live with you — how many adults and children;
• your monthly budget and how much you can pay at move-in;
• preferred area and length of stay;
• whether you plan to apply for the rent subsidy — the owner will need to agree to a written lease that is submitted with the application;
• pets, need for a nearby shelter, and your move-in date.

The living allowance is governed by Cabinet Resolution No. 332 of 20 March 2022 (version of 10 September 2026). It is UAH 2,000 a month for adults and UAH 3,000 a month for children and people with disabilities.

It is available to people who moved from areas of active hostilities or temporarily occupied territories with no set end date, and to those whose home was destroyed or made uninhabitable. It is granted for six months. Under martial law it can be extended on application, but for no more than six six-month periods. For some groups the extension is automatic, including pensioners whose pension does not exceed four subsistence minimums for people unable to work, people with Group I or II disabilities, and orphans and children deprived of parental care.

The rules were amended four times in 2026 — by Resolutions No. 390 of 18 March, No. 494 of 10 April, No. 522 of 24 April and No. 1087 of 3 September 2026. In particular, Resolution No. 390 allowed the allowance to be granted again to children who had received it before or lost the right to it; according to the Pension Fund, if the application is filed after 1 May 2026, the allowance is paid from the month of application. So check the conditions for your family with the Pension Fund. You can apply at a Pension Fund office, through an authorised official of the local council's executive body, at an administrative services centre (TsNAP) or, where technically available, online via Diia.

Among other cases (the list is not exhaustive, and each rule has exceptions), the allowance is refused or stopped if the IDP or a family member:

• in the three months before applying or while receiving the allowance, bought housing or land worth more than UAH 100,000;
• in the same period, bought foreign currency worth more than UAH 100,000;
• in the same period, bought a vehicle less than five years old (counted from the year of manufacture);
• on the 1st of the month, holds more than UAH 100,000 on bank deposits;
• owns a home in an area not on the list of hostilities or occupied territories (with exceptions, for example for housing that is uninhabitable).

If you rent, the most relevant programme is the subsidy for paying rent. It is a pilot project under Cabinet Resolution No. 1225 of 25 October 2024; the Pension Fund announced its launch from 29 January 2025. The pilot runs for two years and the resolution gives no exact end date, so check on the Pension Fund website or via 1548 whether applications are still being accepted and funded.

Who qualifies: IDPs from areas of hostilities or occupied territories who do not own more than 13.65 m² of housing per person in a safe area, and IDPs whose home, whatever its size, was destroyed or damaged beyond habitability. You cannot combine the subsidy with the living allowance, so work out which one gives your household more.

How it is calculated: first a rent cap is set — UAH 208 per m² (State Statistics data for January 2025) times a regional coefficient times 13.65 m² per person, with a minimum of 35.22 m² per household. The subsidy is then the lower of your actual rent or the cap, minus a mandatory contribution. Its base rate is 20% of the household's average monthly income, adjusted depending on income level.

How to apply: the tenant applies, in some cases jointly with the landlord, online via the Pension Fund portal or app with an e-signature, at a TsNAP or at an authorised bank; both parties sign the lease. The lease can follow the model form attached to the resolution, or be another lease containing the required details. If funding is limited, people with no other housing are served first.

A point worth raising with the owner: for landlords who are private individuals or sole traders, the Pension Fund compensates part of the income tax (or single tax) and military levy on the rent, calculated from the rent cap. If an owner hesitates about a formal lease, this can help.

The hosting compensation is easy to confuse with rent support. Under Resolution No. 333 (version of 23 September 2026), owners who host IDPs free of charge receive UAH 450 per person per month. If you pay rent, this programme does not apply to you. It is also not paid for first-degree relatives, or when the IDP already receives the rent subsidy under Resolution No. 1225.

If you need free or temporary accommodation in Cherkasy, call the 1548 crisis hotline (it advises, among other things, on temporary accommodation for IDPs) or contact local authorities such as a TsNAP or the city council. A consolidated list of temporary accommodation sites was approved by Order No. 977 of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of 10 June 2025. Availability at any given shelter changes, so confirm before you travel.

If your budget is tight, use listing data as a guide. In the OLX sample of 29 September 2026, among neighbourhoods with at least 10 flat listings, the lowest median asking rent was in the South-West district (PZR): UAH 16,000 a month (17 listings). The median was UAH 25,000 in the city centre (44 listings) and UAH 24,000 in Mytnytsia (13 listings). Other neighbourhoods had too few listings to draw conclusions. These are asking prices, not deal prices.

In your first conversation with the owner or a manager, clarify the points that matter most for IDPs:

• whether the owner will sign a written lease, which the rent subsidy requires;
• whether they will consent to you declaring your residence there, if you need it;
• whether children and pets are accepted: on 29 September 2026 only 16 of 108 Cherkasy flat listings on OLX explicitly allowed pets;
• what the monthly rent includes and what is extra: utilities, internet, building maintenance;
• whether a deposit is required, how much, and on what terms it is returned.

A residential lease must be in writing (Civil Code, Article 811); notarisation is mandatory only for a rent-to-own housing contract. For IDPs a written lease matters even more: the rent subsidy is based on it, and it serves as proof of your right to live there for paper registration of residence.

You must declare or register a new place of residence within 30 calendar days of arrival (Law No. 1871-IX, Art. 5). If you are not the owner, online declaration in Diia requires the owner's (all co-owners') electronic consent. For paper registration at a TsNAP, the lease itself proves your right to live there. Declaring an address does not give you the right to use the home — the lease does.

What to check and put in writing:

• everyone who will live with you — for a lease of a year or longer the law requires them to be listed (Arts. 816 and 821), and it is wise for shorter leases too;
• the rent and payment date; if no date is set, rent is monthly, and it cannot be changed unilaterally unless the lease or the law allows it (Art. 820);
• who pays utilities — the tenant, unless the lease says otherwise (Art. 815);
• the term — if none is stated, the lease is deemed to run for 5 years (Art. 821);
• the owner's title document and passport; ownership can be checked in the State Register of Real Property Rights (UAH 40 online via Diia, with a qualified e-signature);
• the owner's consent to declare your residence, if you need it;
• the details required for the subsidy, if you plan to apply — compare the lease with the model form in Resolution No. 1225.

Police have specifically warned about scams targeting IDPs. The classic one is renting out a flat that does not exist in exchange for a prepayment. OLX's rule is simple: do not send money to a card or phone number before you have seen the property and met the landlord, or before signing the lease. Honest landlords ask for payment when the lease is signed and keys are handed over.

Red flags listed by OLX:

• a price well below the market;
• the same photos appear in listings from other cities;
• a deposit to hold the flat because dozens of people want it;
• a link to pay a booking or delivery fee;
• if you have already paid, call 102 or report at ticket.cyberpolice.gov.ua; if you entered card details on a third-party site, block the card with your bank immediately.