It should be reminded that housing loan subsidies are a housing program within which the state, ie the relevant Ministry and the Agency for Legal Transactions and Real Estate Brokerage (APN), help repay a part of a housing loan when buying an apartment or house, or repay a loan to build a house for five years. The law on subsidizing housing loans was passed in order to encourage demographic renewal of society, urban regeneration of settlements and reduce the emigration of young families. It prescribes the provision of assistance to citizens in resolving the housing issue by buying an apartment or house, or building a house, by subsidizing a housing loan.

Emphasizing the importance of this measure, Minister Horvat emphasized that a record number of requests had been received since the last call, which is another indicator that citizens have recognized this measure as a quality one.

'The success of the implementation of this measure is best illustrated by the fact that in the past four years over 17,000 subsidized loans have been approved, and more than 2,000 children have been born in families that use subsidies so far. All this is a good indicator to the Ministry and the Government that we are going in the right direction, and that we will continue to implement subsidies in the coming years, 'said Minister Horvat.

The program has been successfully implemented since 2017, once a year, while exceptionally this year two calls were published - one in April, when a total of 3,681 requests were received, while applications for the last call were possible from September 28 to October 19, 2020. . years. In that period, a total of 4,561 applications were received, of which 4,235 have been approved so far, while part of the application is still being amended.

In order for the housing measure to continue, it was necessary to change the existing legislative framework, given that the current Law on Subsidizing Housing Loans stipulates that APN calls are issued only by the end of this year.

These are some of the novelties that Minister Horvat presented at the Government session:

a new deadline is set for December 31, 2023, in which the Agency for Legal Transactions and Real Estate Brokerage publishes public invitations for each calendar year
it is more clearly stated that loan subsidies are not granted to applicants who have exercised this right earlier
the status of minor children for whom additional subsidies are granted as household members is more clearly defined
the deadline within which the borrower and members of the household are obliged to have registered residence is regulated
cases are regulated in which it is not necessary to return the paid subsidies and are extended to the sale of an apartment or house in case of construction of a larger house.
For this purpose, the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia in 2021 provided HRK 263,500,000.00 (HRK 213,500,000.00 for the payment of subsidies from liabilities until 2021 and HRK 50,000,000.00 for new subsidies to be approved in 2021). For 2022 and 2023, an additional HRK 50,000,000.00 is provided each year.

Source: Tportal