Uzbekistan is preparing to shift full control of apartment building management into private hands, part of a broader push to bring private companies into sectors long dominated by the state, a senior housing official told lawmakers this week.
Jalol Arashov, first deputy minister of construction and housing and communal services, outlined the plan during a session of the Legislative Chamber on August 25, telling deputies that private firms are also being drawn more deeply into centralized heating, water supply and sewage services across the country.
The announcement came as MPs reviewed the government's progress on the "Uzbekistan – 2030" strategy for the first half of 2026. The MP Farkhod Zainiyev pressed the ministry for specifics after noting that item 249 of the program calls for continuing the transfer of state functions to private operators, asking exactly which responsibilities in the housing and utilities sector would change hands.
"In recent years, active work has been underway to transfer state functions to the private sector," Zainiyev told the chamber. "This, in turn, helps save budget funds, fosters healthy competition and, most importantly, improves the quality of services for consumers."
In response, Arashov laid out three areas where the shift is already taking shape.
Apartment management to go fully private
"The first area is that the management system for apartment buildings will be fully transferred to the private sector," Arashov said. He did not clarify whether the move would alter the existing legal framework for building management, including the role of homeowners' associations.
Under current Uzbek law, apartment buildings can be managed in one of three ways: directly by the unit owners themselves; by a management company or individual entrepreneur under contract; or by a homeowners' association — a nonprofit body representing owners of residential and commercial units within one or several nearby buildings. Which of these arrangements would survive a "full transfer" to private management remains unclear.
Heating networks handed to foreign operators
The second focus, Arashov said, is centralized heating, where the ministry's goal is to enlist private companies to improve service quality for households.
He pointed to Tashkent as a model, where the capital's heating network has already been placed under the control of the French utility company Veolia.
Elsewhere, the RK-1 boiler plant in Nukus has been transferred to Saudi Arabia's Saudi Tabreed under a presidential decree, Arashov said. In Bukhara, authorities plan to hand over the city's central boiler plant through a public-private partnership. Similar efforts to bring private operators into district heating are also underway in Urgench and Zarafshan, he added.
"In the heating systems of these cities — that is, in providing the population with centralized heating — work is also underway to transfer [these functions] to the private sector," Arashov told deputies.
Billion-dollar water and sewage projects underway
The third pillar of the reform involves drinking water supply and sewage systems, where the ministry says several projects with foreign private investors are already in motion.
Chief among them is a 23-year public-private partnership with the UAE's Metito to overhaul Namangan's sewage infrastructure, a project valued at $90 million. "Most importantly, work has begun on the complete reconstruction of Namangan's sewage system and on improving the quality of services for residents," Arashov said.
Further afield, the government is looking to bring private investors into wastewater treatment in Jizzakh and drinking water supply in Navoi, where officials are working with a Chinese company, according to Arashov.
The most ambitious of the water projects is a new wastewater treatment plant planned for Tashkent, developed in partnership with the UAE's TAQA Water. The facility, designed to process 1 million cubic meters of wastewater per day, carries a price tag of $1 billion.
Taken together, the initiatives mark one of the most significant expansions yet of private and foreign capital into Uzbekistan's housing and utilities sector — a shift officials argue will ease pressure on the state budget while modernizing services that have long lagged behind demand.
Stay up to date with all the latest news:
