Houses under construction – flats – construction cranes – mortgage – illustrative photo.
Prague – The government wants to involve the State National Development Bank (NRB) in the construction of affordable rental apartments. The Cabinet is also planning to amend the Act on the State Investment Support Fund (SFPI), which supports the development of housing in the Czech Republic. The government thus wants to support its commitment that up to 10,000 additional rental apartments could be built per year at the end of the election period. This is according to the updated cabinet program statement published today.
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The government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) has declared from the beginning that it supports the development of all types of housing (ownership, rental and cooperative housing). Therefore, he wants to prepare new financial instruments for the construction of affordable rental apartments in the form of, for example, fund financing or a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and state guarantees for loans. The National Development Bank is now to be involved in this activity.
NRB was founded in 1992 as the Czech Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank, and has been operating under the new name since September 2021. Its sole shareholder is the Czech Republic, represented by the Ministry of Industry, Finance and Regional Development. The bank offers entrepreneurs loans with zero or preferential interest rates. Last year, it provided entrepreneurs with loans and guarantees for 22.5 billion crowns. Another roughly one billion crowns has been released for the development of public infrastructure.
In the housing area, the government's statement also adds that a wider range of financial resources, including the National Recovery Plan, should be used to increase the construction of rental housing.
The amendment to the Act on the State Investment Support Fund is intended to enable more flexible functioning of the fund and expand the possibility of targeting programs, Veronika Hešíková, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Regional Development, told ČTK. The government said in a statement that more money should be moved to SFPI for innovative financial instruments to support housing. This should also include funds for the preparation of project documentation, real estate purchases and the regeneration of brownfields for housing purposes, as well as for the reconstruction of neglected housing stock.
In the area of public procurement, the government has newly formulated that by 2024 it will set up a functional model of central purchases of commodities in such a way as to ensure a reduction in the administrative burden for different levels of contracting authorities, especially on the basis of an e-shop or other effective forms of public procurement.
In the field of tourism, the name of the Act on Tourism was changed to the Act on Management and the development of tourism, which he wants to introduce by the end of this year. In it, he wants to improve coordination between departments, municipalities and professional organizations and to connect public and private interests more. In a new statement, it confirmed that the launch of the e-Turista system has been pushed back by a year to 2025.
