housing developments in european countries - Department of ...

Section 2
Context
Context Section 2
Table
2.23.1
Category
Economic Trends in Romania, 1998-2003
dwellings had a hot water supply. Approximately half
of all dwellings in the country had a kitchen, bathroom
and toilet in 2002, but the availability of these
amenities was 10 times higher in urban areas than in
rural areas.
During 2002, 88.4% of the total Romanian housing
stock was occupied. Comprehensive data on regional
distribution of these vacant dwellings are not available.
However, empty dwellings are believed to be
concentrated in the former highly industrialised parts
of the country. Currently, the Romanian government is
considering the possibility of commandeering these
dwellings for use as social housing.
2.23.3 Economy
Year
1998/1999 1999/2000 2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003
GDP 97.7 101.6 105.7 104.9 104.9
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Inflation rate 159.1 145.8 145.7 134.5 122.5 115.3
According to the National Institute of Statistics,
Romanian GDP was 1,890,778.3 billion Romanian
Leu (ROL) or €50.34 billion in 2003. TABLE 2.23.1
details the annual rate of increase of GDP in recent
years, together with inflation rates.
In 2002, the potential economically active population
(occupied and unemployed persons) represented 40.8%
of the total population. The occupied active population
accounts for 36% of the total population and
unemployed people represent 11.8% of the total active
population. The proportion of the population that is
active and occupied has shrunk over the last decade.
This trend is related to demographic factors. As the
number of retired people has increased, the number of
schoolchildren has decreased.
2.23.4 Demography
In 2002, the population of Romania totalled
21,680,974 people. In the same year the total number
of households was 7,320,202 and the average number
of persons per household was 2.92 in 2002, compared
to 3.07 in 1992.
The population of the country has fallen in recent
years, as a result of a falling birth rate (down from
1.1% per 1,000 inhabitants between 1966 and 1977 to
0.4% per 1,000 inhabitants between 1977 and 1992)
and the negative rate of external migration (which
averaged minus 5% annually between 1992 and 2002).
These factors have also contributed to the ageing of
the Romanian population in recent years, as was
mentioned above.
The territorial distribution of the Romanian
population also altered between 1992 and 2002, due
to regional differences of the birth rate and external
and internal migration. The urban population declined
faster than the rural population between these years.
2.24 Slovakia
2.24.1 Policy Making and
Implementation
The Ministry of Construction and Regional
Development holds responsibility for housing policy
development and implementation in Slovakia. The
specific responsibilities held by the ministry in this
regard are as follows:
■ devising and updating the key Statements of
national housing policy, namely: the Principles of
State Housing Policy and the Principles of Housing
Development Policy;
■ drafting, analysing and updating the legal
framework for housing;
■ designing and monitoring the application of
economic instruments for housing construction,
devising and applying housing development
programmes and the administration of the State
Housing Development Fund;
■ co-operating with the local authorities at town and
village level in realising the aims of State, regional
and local housing policy, and liaising with nonprofit
organisations, financial, professional and
interest-group institutions, and
■ framing a methodology to guide activities
concerning the modernisation, refurbishment and
regeneration of the housing stock.
As mentioned above, the key aims of housing policy
are expressed in the Principles of State Housing Policy.
Another component of housing policy is the Housing
Development Action Plan, which details the individual
tasks relevant to support the development of housing,
together with the bodies responsible for fulfilling them
and the required deadlines for their implementation.
The Principles of Housing Construction Development
focuses on the creation and development of economic
support instruments for housing construction and
defines the basic approaches to financing housing,
although these are also re-assessed and updated
regularly.
Other documents that are particularly influential in the
context of Slovakian housing policy development
include: Country Profiles in the Housing Sector –
Slovakia, drawn up by a group of experts of the
Committee on Human Settlements of the United
National Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
in 1999, and the National Report on the Development
of Human Settlements and Housing in Slovakia, drawn
up following the United Nations Habitat Conference
Istanbul +5 which was held in 2001.
On the basis of these various documents, the aims of
housing policy in Slovakia can be summarised as
follows. The key objective of policy is to modify
support measures in housing development so that they
provide appropriately differentiated State support for
construction intended for the various income groups
within the population. These are:
■ for low-income households the construction of
rental apartments in the public rental housing sector
will be facilitated by resources from the State
Housing Development Fund and subsidies from the
State budget in combination with funds from local
government or other investors on a non-profit basis;
■ for the middle income group of households the
objective of intervention by government is to enable
them to buy an apartment or single family house
with State support via loans from the State Housing
Development Fund or building and mortgage loans,
and
■ for the highest income group of the population, the
State aims to create the conditions necessary to
enable then to acquire housing from their own
resources and using financial market funds.
2.24.2 Stock
In 2001, the Slovakian housing stock totalled
1,884,846 dwellings, of which 1,665,536 were
permanently occupied; 49.9% of these permanently
occupied dwellings were apartments, a further 43.5%
were single-family houses and details of the design of
the remainder are not available.
As illustrated in TABLE 2.24.1, like many other
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Regular National Report on Housing Developments in European Countries
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