On Wednesday, the National Assembly decided on one of the most important acts of recent years, which will fundamentally accelerate the resolving of the problem of first housing for young people. Namely, this is an act on the housing guarantee scheme for young people, which was prepared by the Slovenian Democratic Youth (Slovenska demokratska mladina – SDM) and was submitted to the national assembly by the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS). The proposal for the Housing Guarantee Scheme for Young People Act was adopted without a single vote against it at the 99th extraordinary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.
In addition to the deputies of the SDS party, the act was also supported by deputies from the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi), Concretely party (Konkretno), Slovenian National Party (Slovenska nacionalna stranka – SNS), the two representatives of national minorities, and the independent MP Mateja Udovč. Last week, the bill was also discussed by the parliamentary Committee on Finance, and the Left party (Levica) and the Party of Alenka Bratušek (stranka Alenke Bratušek – SAB) opposed it, and some members of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition (which consists of the left-wing parties of the current opposition) did not vote on it.
The Social Democrats and the Left party are not in favour of the proposal
“Today, we have an important act in front of us, as we all talk a lot about solving the housing problem for young people, but unfortunately, we all do way too little to actually solve it,” said SDS MP Tomaž Lisec, on behalf of the proponents of the act. According to Lisec, this is a topic, or rather the solution to a problem, for which a similar law was already submitted by the SDS parliamentary group in 2019. At the time, however, the concept was a little different. And according to Andrej Černigoj from the NSi party, this proposal is a step forward: “Young people will get a loan for an apartment much easier now.” Dušan Verbič from the Concretely party also said that this was “a step in the right direction.”
The List of Marjan Šarec (Lista Marjana Šarca – LMŠ) announced that they would not oppose the proposal. According to their MP Nik Prebil, they came to a conclusion that “it is not a coincidence that this is happening right in the pre-election period, but this will not result in the desired outcomes in the end.” The Party of Alenka Bratušek came to a similar conclusion, but they also said that they would not oppose the adoption of the act. The Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD) did not express support for the proposal, as, according to MP Franc Trček, they are in favour of solving the problem with various housing cooperatives. And according to the Slovenian Press Agency, the Left party also assessed that the proposal was not a good one.
The act in question stipulates that young people up to the age of 38 will receive a guarantee from the state when applying for a loan with the bank in order to solve the problem of their first housing. The same will apply to young families. The guarantee can be issued for a loan of up to 200 thousand euros and with a maturity of up to 30 years. The borrower will have to secure the loan with a mortgage and ensure his own participation in the amount of at least 20 percent of the loan principal.
Guarantees will be available until the end of 2032, the scheme will be implemented by the state-owned SID Bank, and 300 million euros in guarantee quotas are expected to be available annually. And what are the financial consequences of the law? It is expected that the law will not have financial consequences on the state budget in the first year after its adoption, and then it is estimated that approximately three million euros will have to be provided in the budget for this purpose.
