The government has adopted a draft act on housing cooperatives and on the rules of selling real estate belonging to the municipal real estate resource, which is to enable the investment of a residential building in the formula of a cooperative created by a group of future residents, the Government Information Center (CIR) reported.
The government wants to facilitate investments in the housing cooperative formula in Poland. This formula allows a group of future residents to invest in a new apartment building. These people actively participate in decision-making processes in the design and implementation of a given housing investment, it was announced..
The housing cooperative is to reduce the costs of constructing a residential building, because some of the work is done by the members of the housing cooperatives on their own and they do not pay the profit margin to subcontractors and developers.
The experience of cooperatives so far shows that it is possible to reduce the cost of acquiring an apartment – in relation to its purchase on the development market – by approx. 20-30%, it was also stated.
Solutions proposed in the draft act:
– the formula of the housing cooperative is to be included in the law related to real estate management and the investment process.
– this solution is to facilitate the application for loan financing from banks or access to land real estate, in particular real estate belonging to the municipal resources.
– the cooperative formula could involve at least three natural persons (not enterprises) concluding a housing cooperative agreement or civil partnership agreement.
– operating in the cooperative formula would lead to satisfying one’s own housing needs (these undertakings, as a rule, would not be profit-oriented)
A housing investment as part of a cooperative would consist of:
– purchase of land and construction of at least one multi-family building,
– purchase of land and construction of a complex of single-family residential buildings,
– purchase of land real estate developed with at least one building and carrying out construction works in this building (this option is important if there is a need for renovation or reconstruction, e.g. in a revitalization area).
The liability of the cooperative members acting under the housing cooperative agreement would be joint and several liability, it was also stated.
The proposed regulation also provides for a change in the rules for granting a guaranteed housing loan and adapting them to the current situation on the housing loan market by:
– making it possible to make a larger own contribution, abolishing the provision on the minimum amount of the guarantee or increasing the price limit per square meter for premises purchased on the primary and secondary market.
– making it possible for people who have accumulated funds to cover 20% of the property value to take advantage of family repayments and increasing this parameter even to 25% in the case of loans with a fixed or periodically fixed interest rate.
The aim of the proposed solutions is to enable more people to qualify for the program and to support the process of gradual increase in the share of fixed-rate housing loans, summarized.
Source: CIR and ISBnews
