The Council of Ministers plans to adopt a draft amendment to the Act on social forms of housing development and some other acts, concerning communal and social construction, including housing for students, in the second/third quarter of this year, according to the information in the list of legislative and program works of the Council of Ministers.
It will be facilitated to implement local housing policy. It is about restoring the social nature of housing investments, which are financed from the state budget and to allow for a significant increase in the scale of this type of investment in the coming years. A novelty will also be the possibility of applying for financial support for the construction or renovation of space for the needs of the students, announced Government Information Centre (CIR).
For the implementation of municipal housing investments, it is necessary to increase the maximum limit of expenditure of the state budget for the years 2024 and 2025 (as further amended in 2018), to the amount of which the Agreement Fund may be credited for the BSK program (i.e. the government support program for social and municipal housing, implemented on the basis of the provisions of the Act of 8 December 2006 on the financial support of some housing projects, under which the provision of the financial development of the state., primarily municipal construction), indicated in the list of legislative and programme works.
It is also necessary to guarantee budget funds for this purpose in the coming years (until 2030) – which will allow municipalities to plan their housing investments in the following years. The lack of intervention in this area will make it difficult for municipalities and Social Housing Initiatives (SIM) and the Social Housing Society (TBS), and will also constitute a barrier to the possibility of meeting housing needs by people interested in such a formula of living lease.
The action, compatible to increase the support of municipal housing investments, will be an increase in the scale and extension of the Social Construction Program (SBC) by another year.
In addition, it is proposed to modify the existing rules for financing social rent construction with the participation of funds from the BSK programme and the SBC programme in order to guarantee the long-term effect of investments supported by the state budget, taking into account the social nature of the housing stock being created. In this respect, it is proposed to reinstate the provisions on the complete ban on the ownership of premises built under the SBC programme and to extend the period (currently 15 years), after which residential premises created using financial support granted under the BSK programme can be separated. It is also proposed that, after this period, any sale could only take place at the market price (without discount), and the funds obtained would be allocated to the creation of a new or modernisation of the existing housing stock of the municipality. This is another element necessary to achieve long-term goals in the form of a stable housing market, having an offer for each social group, it further announced.
“The draft law will also allow you to apply for financial support for the construction or renovation of space to meet the housing needs of students. Although the activity of student houses is closely related to education, it is undeniable that it is a form of satisfying housing needs during education at universities. Thus, the new component is part of the objectives of the BSK programme, guaranteeing sustainable development to local communities,” it said.
Another proposal will be to resign in the housing special act from determining at national level the minimum coefficient of the number of parking spaces planned for implementation as part of the housing investment and return to the rules in force before 2023.
The body responsible for the development of the project is the Ministry of Development and Technology; the planned date for the adoption of the project by the Council of Ministers: II/III quarter 2024, summarised.
Source: CIR and ISBnews
