The government changes its housing strategy by moving distant from social housing subsidies. A key component of the fresh policy is to verify the income of tenants of municipal and social housing. People whose earnings will increase importantly can anticipate a rent increase. This is simply a groundbreaking change that aims to guarantee that inexpensive venues from the state go to the most deprived. The initiator of the changes is Deputy Minister Tomasz Lewandowski, who announces that 1 of the projects may be discussed by the government in the coming days. fresh regulations are not only to seal the system, but besides to solve the problem of the alleged rent gap, which already affects over a 4th of Poles.
You make more money? You'll pay higher rent for the apartment.
The main premise of the bill is the introduction of a mechanics that depends on the rent on the tenant's income. This is simply a consequence to situations where people occupying municipal premises have improved their material situation importantly over time and inactive benefited from preferential rates. The fresh strategy is to be more fair and flexible.
The co-founder of the project, Deputy Minister Tomasz Lewandowski, in an interview with Business Insider explained how this mechanics should work. “If individual crosses the advanced income threshold, there will be an increase, but this increase will not be automatic, it will be proportional. Depending on the percent of exceeding the threshold, this will be the percent of the increase" – announced. This means that the increase will not be jumpy and severe, but gradual, adequate for rising earnings.
Importantly, this mechanics is to be excluded Pensioners and pensioners. Their income situation, even if it exceeds certain thresholds, will not consequence in rent increases. The exact income thresholds to trigger the rise are not yet known. They are to be defined precisely in the Act, and their determination is likely to stay the work of the local authorities, although this may besides change.
New law responds to the increasing “rental gap”
The proposed changes are not just sanctions for wealthy tenants. The government besides wants to solve 1 of the biggest problems of the Polish housing marketplace – the alleged "rental gap". This phenomenon affects people who They gain besides much to qualify for a municipal apartment, but at the same time not adequate to afford rent or acquisition a premises on marketplace terms.
The scale of the problem is alarming. According to the Habitat for Humanity Poland Foundation report, there may even be a rent gap in the lease store 26% of Poles. In addition, the number of households that spend more than half of their income on rental. The problem is already affecting 15% of the Polish population, which represents almost a double increase in just 3 years. In consequence to these challenges, Lewandowski's task involves balancing the system. In addition to introducing increases for the wealthier, it is planned to raising the income threshold for social housing. This will give more people from the “loan gap” a chance to have a unchangeable and inexpensive roof over their heads.
The revolution will besides affect housing cooperatives
Government plans are not limited to municipal and social housing. Another task is designed to reduce pathologies that have grown around the functioning of housing cooperatives over the years. The changes are intended to increase transparency and accountability of management boards and to strengthen the position of residents.
One of the key proposals is the full elimination of the anticipation of conducting written general meetings. specified form of adoption of resolutions has frequently been criticised for deficiency of transparency and the anticipation of manipulation. After the changes, key decisions will should be taken at meetings with members' physical participation. In addition, the burden of decisions on the debt of cooperatives is planned to be transferred. It is presently on the side of the general meetings, and after the amendment it would be transferred to the boards, which would improve management and increase work for financial decisions taken.
Ambitious Government Plan: 25,000 inexpensive housing per year
All these activities are part of a broader imagination of a fresh housing policy. Deputy Minister Tomasz Lewandowski in a fresh Echo24 tv interview stated that the government's aim is to guarantee that, within the municipal, social and cooperative system, the state built 20 to 25 1000 flats all year for inexpensive rental. This is to be a viable alternate to an unstable and costly commercial market.
An example of what this may look like in practice are the investments carried out by the Social Construction Society (TBS). In Świdnica, 28 housing units were late donated, where the tenant's participation was PLN 500 per square metre and the rent was set at PLN 20/m2. Buildings are equipped with modern technologies specified as heat pumps, photovoltaics and energy storage, reducing heating costs to just 1.5 PLN/m2. It is specified a model of construction – modern, ecological and above all affordable – that it is to be developed on a massive scale throughout Poland. The proposed legislative changes are intended to make a solid foundation for this ambitious objective.
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The government will look at the tenants' wages. No more inexpensive rent for the richer?