Nine Housing Complexes, 3,308 Flats Rise in Four ISEZ Cities for 2027–28 Handover

TALAS — Nine residential complexes holding 3,308 flats are now under construction in four ISEZ cities, according to figures released by the city halls of Talas, Nurzhan, Iyık Janyl and Kyzyl-Adyr. Handovers are planned for 2027 and 2028, and the halls report that work is on schedule.

Talas leads the list with three complexes and 1,380 flats, among them the 495 flats in eleven nine-storey blocks in the west of the city, due for handover in 2027. Nurzhan has four complexes with 1,520 flats, Iyık Janyl one with 240 flats and Kyzyl-Adyr one with 168.

For many families the news is welcome. A one-room flat in Talas rents for IS 1,000–1,500 a month, in Nurzhan for IS 750–1,200 and in Iyık Janyl for IS 600–1,000, and young couples often wait years for a place of their own. "Every block that is finished is a few dozen households off the waiting list," said Prof. Raisa Akmatova, an economist at Talas State University.

She was frank about the scale, however. Talas alone is home to 1.12 million people, and 3,308 flats across four cities are a first step, not a solution. "The direction is right. The question now is how quickly the next ones follow, and where they stand," she said.

That second question has begun to matter. Several of the sites lie on former sovkhoz fields at the edge of the cities, in the Talas and Chu valleys, and after this year's record harvest growers and city councillors have asked how much irrigated land should be built over. "A field that has been watered for sixty years is not made twice," said Toktosun Abdraev, a farmer in the Chu oasis near Nurzhan. "I am glad for the new flats. I would like the next ones built where the soil is poorer."

The concern is not unique to Irad. The Kyrgyz president has recently raised the conversion of farmland to housing in Kyrgyzstan, and the debate there is followed closely in Talas, whose valley shares a climate and a water table with its neighbour.

The city halls are expected to publish further handover dates as each complex nears completion. Councillors in Talas and Nurzhan have said the siting of future projects will come up when the 2027 plans are discussed.