Housing construction under the POS programme is a programme, recognised long ago, of housing provision to young families that obtain, for a price lower than the market price per square meter, security and quality construction of their home. To date, under the POS programme, more than eight thousand apartments have been built, with four billion kuna invested.
POS apartments are built for purchase or rent, and the right to purchase an apartment belongs to all citizens of the Republic of Croatia.
Precedence at apartment purchase have protected tenants, who use an apartment owned by a natural person, and citizens who for the first time acquire the ownership of an apartment, or their housing issue is not adequately solved, i.e., they do not own housing that is adequately equipped with utility infrastructure (water, sewerage, electricity) and does not meet sanitary and technical requirements for healthy housing, of the size of about 35 square meters of useful floor area per person, or about ten additional square meters for every further person.
Candidates shall be creditworthy. Creditworthiness is established based on the prescribed documents that every candidate from the priority list shall submit to the commercial bank.
To prevent misuse at re-sale and renting out of apartments purchased under the POS programme, this year amendments to the Act on State-subsidised Housing Construction have been adopted introducing ban on the rent or sale of unpaid apartments purchased under the POS programme, and this if defined in the purchase contract. Should a buyer of a POS apartment decide to sell or rent out the POS apartment, the Agency for Transactions and Mediation in Immovable Properties (APN) shall inform thereof the bank that has granted the loan, and the bank shall declare the loan’s full maturity and initiate compulsory payment collection. In such a case the POS apartment buyer shall have to pay to APN the difference between the contracted purchase price and the established market value of the property on the date of contract stipulation. The state shall thus collect from such buyers all the funds invested in subsidies, regardless of the point of time prior to loan expiration at which the apartment is offered for sale or rent.
Pursuant to the latest amendment to the act, citizens are additionally enabled to solve their housing issue also by buying an apartment on the free market – with the interest rate on public funds under repayment reduced from 3% to 2% p.a. and construction and purchase of apartments is enabled in order to keep or attract scarce and lacking staff in public services, especially in underdeveloped areas of the Republic of Croatia and on islands.
Procedure of POS apartment purchase
The procedure of apartment selection and purchase takes place in several steps:
- Local self-government units carry out surveys on housing needs or announce a Public call for apartment purchase under the POS Programme
- Presentation of the POS Programme upon announcement of the call for establishment of the Priority List
- APN, or the public institution and the local self-government unit respectively, sign a Precontract on mutual rights and obligations regarding the construction of buildings under the POS Programme, as well as a Contract on the transfer of property rights on land for the construction of buildings
- Implementation of public bidding for designer selection under participation of a City representative, development of design documents and obtaining of building permits
- Implementation of public bidding for the selection of the contractor and supervisor under participation of a City representative, and conclusion of the contract on construction and performance of the tasks of expert supervision and consulting
- Conclusion of a Contract on mutual rights and obligations regarding the construction of the building under the POS Programme
- Construction of the construction work
- Presentation of apartments to candidates from the Final Priority List
- Selection of apartments
- Conclusion of Precontracts on apartment purchase
- Buyers conclude Loan contracts with commercial banks
- Completion of construction and obtaining of the use permit for the building
- Apartment inspection and takeover with buyers
To date, under the POS programme, 8276 apartments in 253 buildings in 79 local self-government units have been built, and by 2021 the construction of one thousand new apartments is planned at locations in Zagreb, Zadar, Split, Trogir, Solin, Biograd na Moru, Bol, Cres, Krk, Kraljevica, Lovran, Poreč, Vis and Vrsar.
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