Five cities in Ukraine have already showed interest in participating in a pilot project of the Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine on the reconstruction of the old housing stock, Minsiter Hennadiy Temnyk has said.

"Five cities have expressed a desire to participate in this. We're working with them and will see who is ready for the project, as the issue is not an easy one: pilot projects are always difficult," he said at a press conference on Thursday.

He said that the issue of the reconstruction of the old housing stock has been discussed by the ministry for a long time, and noted that the ministry plans to finish the designing of a model for the pilot project by the end of this year.

"According to the model, all desires will be taken into account, including those of constructors and the residents to whom we propose the realization of this project," Temnyk said.

"By the end of the year we'll present [the model] and plan, so that in early 2014 we can start realizing the pilot project," Temnyk said.