Moratorium on pegging rents to foreign currency has been extended

Lessors and lessees welcomed the New Year wondering whether the ban on determining rents in currency equivalent would be extended. The previously introduced ban expired on 1 January 2024, and it was unclear whether the first rent payments in the new year should be calculated in currency terms as it used to be until September 2022, or to wait for the situation to be resolved.

The Law of 5 January 2024 No. 347-З "On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Amendments to the Laws on Securities Market Issues" extended the prohibition to determine rent payments in currency equivalent for the whole year 2024. Since it is a prolongation of the previous ban, it has been in effect continuously since 1 January 2024, and this should be taken into account if any of the lessees in the first days of January have already managed to pay according to the "pre-prohibition" procedure, linked to the currency equivalent.

Moreover, the new Law introduced a ban not only on the use of currency equivalent, but also on the possibility to determine the rent in conventional units, which was quite widespread in the conditions of the prohibition of currency pegging. Lessors and lessees whose agreements set the rent in conventional units must bring their contracts into compliance with the requirements of the new Law.