housing developments in european countries - Department of ...

Section 2
Context
Context Section 2
have declined, although the latter remains high in
comparison to many other European countries – in
2002, 18.5% of the Slovakian population was
unemployed.
2.24.4 Demography
In 2001, the population of Slovakia was 5,379,455
persons. The population has fallen slightly since 1997
when it stood at 5,388,000 persons. TABLE 2.24.3
reveals that this trend is attributable to a fall in the
birth rate – live births per 1,000 inhabitants fell from
11 in 1997 to 9.5 in 2001, and in the latter year fell
below replacement levels. In contrast, net migration
has remained consistently positive since 1997, but at
very low levels. The number of Slovakians in the 18 to
65 year age group also rose slightly between 1997 and
2001. However, over the longer term there is a pattern
of the ageing of the population. Between 1961 and
2002, the proportion of the Slovakian population aged
under 18 years fell from 31.5% to 18.9%, while the
proportion aged over 65 years grew from 13.7% to
18.8% over the same period.
In 2001, the Slovakian population included 2,071,743
households. The average number of persons per
household in that year stood at 2.59%, 43.2% of
households included 4 or more people, and the
population density per 1 km 2 stood at 110.
2.25 Slovenia
2.25.1 Policy Making and
Implementation
In 2000, the National Assembly of the Republic of
Slovenia adopted the National Housing Programme for
the period 2000-2009. The main goal of the National
Housing Programme is to enable the construction of
10,000 new dwellings annually, which should be
sufficient to address all housing needs in the country,
including social housing needs.
In 2003, a new Housing Act was passed which
substantially upgraded the previous 1991 Housing Act.
Its central aims are as follows:
■ the revival of new housing construction and
renewal as well as the improvement of the
maintenance of the existing housing stock;
■ greater efficiency of management of apartment
blocks;
■ the collection of reserve funds for major
maintenance work;
■ facilitating the qualification of local communities to
perform duties in the housing sector and the
provision of various forms of rental and owneroccupied
housing;
■ the simplification and unifying of non-profit rents
at cost level and the improvement of the social
correction system in the housing area, and
■ the establishment of the building cadastre.
The key agency responsible for housing policy
implementation in Slovenia is the Housing Fund of the
Republic of Slovenia. This is a financial institution
whose basic initial source of funds was the revenue
acquired from the sale of public housing that was
carried out between 1991 and 1993. Twenty per cent
of the proceeds of the sale of each formerly public
rented dwelling were provided to the Housing Fund.
However, this source of revenue diminished after
privatisation was completed. For this reason, the
Housing Fund was funded also by the State budget
until 2000. The Housing Fund was created for the
purpose of providing loans for the construction,
renewal and maintenance of housing. The Fund thus
provides loans at more favourable interest rates
compared to those of commercial banks, for an
annuity period of 10 to 25 years. The beneficiaries
of the Housing Fund’s finance are, on the one hand,
first-time home buyers and, on the other hand, local
authorities and local authority housing funds and
non-profit housing organisations, which are
responsible primarily for the construction of nonprofit
rental housing in the country. Recently, the
Housing Fund has been operating also as a jointinvestor
in housing construction. This has been done
by entering into partnerships with local authorities
in order to construct good quality and affordable
housing on communally serviced building land
which is usually provided by the local authority
partner.
2.52.2 Stock
In 2002, the Slovenian housing stock stood at
777,772 dwellings, 220,709 of which were
apartments. This means that there were 390 per
1,000 inhabitants in this country in 2002. This is
below the average for the 28 countries examined in
this review but above the average for the CEE
countries under examination. Like many other
countries in this part of Europe, tenure patterns in
Slovenia changed radically during the 1990s as a result
of the aforementioned privatisation of the public
rented housing stock. In 2002, 82.2% of dwellings in
this country were owner-occupied, compared to 66.9%
in 1991. As is revealed in TABLE 2.25.1, the remainder
of the housing stock consists of social housing rented
from the State or local authorities (6.2%), other social
housing providers (0.3%), and private rented dwellings
(2.6%).
The average dwelling size of a Slovenian dwelling was
74.6 m 2 in 2002 which is around average in European
terms. However, in the same year 76.9% of all
dwellings in Slovenia had 3 rooms or less. The average
number of persons per dwelling was 2.8. Apartment
Table
2.25.1
Characteristics of the Housing Stock
in Slovenia, 2002
Category %
Dwellings
by tenure Public rental (national and local government) 6.2
Social landlords 0.3
Private rental 2.6
Owner-occupied 82.2
Co-operative
Nav
Others 8.7
Dwellings by
number of rooms 1 14.3
2 31.8
3 30.8
4 14.5
5 + 8.7
Dwellings by age > 3 years 0.8
4- 8 years 3.4
9-13 years 3.6
14-28 years 28.9
29-58 years 39.8
59-103 years 10.6
< 104 years 12.8
Dwellings by
availability of
amenities Electricity 99.1
Sewage 98.6
Water supply 98.5
Central heating 78.6
Bathing facilities 92
Lavatory 93
blocks and high-rise residential dwellings have fewer
rooms than single-family dwellings. In 2002, 95.2% of
dwellings of this type had 3 rooms or fewer. The
Slovenian housing stock is relatively old compared to
many other countries included in this review. Only
7.8% of dwellings have been constructed since 1989.
From the point of view of the availability of services,
the standard of the housing stock in Slovenia is
relatively high. The vast majority of dwellings are
connected to electricity, a sewage system and a water
supply and 78.6% of dwellings have central heating.
It is estimated that about 14% of the dwellings in the
country were vacant in 2002. However, of this
percentage, approx-imately 31,681 dwellings were not
available for letting because they were second homes,
holiday homes or inappropriately furnished.
74 European Union Report
Regular National Report on Housing Developments in European Countries
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