The main topic of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s (Smer-SD) visit to Vienna on Tuesday was rental housing in Austria and incentives for the development of rental housing in Slovakia. Together with the director of the State-supported Rental Housing Agency, Eva Lisová, they met with the Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, and visited the Seestadt Aspern urban planning project. The Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic informed about it.
“There is no comparison. Austria has more than 80 years of continuity in the construction of rental apartments. However, we can greatly inspire and convince the Austrian investment companies, which are so active in the construction of rental apartments in Austria, that they also believe in the Slovak government program and do not hesitate to invest in Slovak cities in rental housing, which is, of course, supposed to be cheaper than classic market housing.” stated the Prime Minister in a video on the social network.
The government office stated that more than 75 percent of Vienna’s residents live in municipal or subsidized housing, while in Slovakia, rental apartments make up only one to two percent of the housing stock. Subsidized loans for the construction of municipal apartments and state-supported rental apartments, which have a regulated rent and a reduced VAT on their construction, are currently operating in the Slovak Republic.
“There are currently 224 apartments in the system of state-supported rental housing, of which 50 are already rented in a pilot project in Bratislava, and on May 21 we will start handing over apartments to our interested parties in Žilina. At the same time, this year we expect the construction of apartment buildings to start in several locations across Slovakia,” Lisová explained.
