When the National Bank announces another package of currency liberalization, attention is usually drawn to the figures: limits increase by two to four times. But behind the dry hryvnia limits lies a change that affects not wealthy investors, but thousands of Ukrainians who have left the country and are still forced to navigate ways to pay for rental housing legally.
It's not about the amount, but the method
Until August 11, 2026, a Ukrainian renting an apartment in Warsaw or Berlin formally did not have a convenient legal mechanism to pay the landlord directly from a Ukrainian hryvnia account for rent — they had to use cash, acquaintances' cards, or complex schemes. Now, within the new limit of 200,000 hryvnias per month, it is allowed to pay for housing rent abroad not only by card, but also by transfer from account to account via SWIFT, with prior currency purchase by the bank at the client's request.
This is the difference between "theoretically possible" and "practically possible": a SWIFT transfer to the landlord's details is how housing rental actually works in Europe, where most owners accept bank transfers rather than a foreign country's card.
Why now
The NBU ties the easing to accumulated reserves — according to updated forecasts, they should grow to almost $70 billion by 2026. The logic is simple: the more stable the currency market, the less sense it makes to maintain restrictions introduced as an emergency measure at the start of the full-scale war. The regulator emphasizes that each measure was analyzed separately to avoid creating pressure on the hryvnia exchange rate.
The easing will not create risks to the stability of the currency market given the formation of preconditions and careful analysis of each individual measure.
Investment focus
Another detail that is easy to overlook among the limits: within 200,000 hryvnias per month, you can now buy not only currency, but also cashless banking metals and securities of foreign issuers. The NBU directly states that the goal is to develop an investment culture. At the same time, the regulator is trying to maintain the attractiveness of hryvnia instruments — deposits and OVDPs — so that liberalization does not provoke a massive outflow of hryvnia savings into currency assets.
Business gets breathing room, not freedom
For legal entities, the changes look more generous on paper: the limit for cash from hryvnia accounts increases to 200,000 hryvnias per day, corporate card settlements abroad — to 400,000 per month. But this raises the ceiling for operational expenses rather than removing control over capital operations or profit withdrawal — that scope of restrictions remains untouched.
A separate interesting point for exporters: it is now allowed to pay fines and compensation to non-resident counterparties, but not more than 10% of the value of goods supplied after February 23, 2021. This is more of a signal of confidence in Ukrainian business in external markets than a large-scale liberalization — the amount is symbolic compared to the volume of export contracts.
What to check now
The banking sector will receive the most urgent change — the ability to more fully account for reserves under active operations when calculating currency position will take effect only from September 1, a month later than the rest of the package. The NBU explains this by the need for technical preparation on both sides.
For the average user, the main question is practical: will banks update their applications and instructions by August 11 so that SWIFT transfers for rent actually go through without additional manual approvals, or will the new opportunity exist only on paper of the regulatory act for a few more months?
