FEDERATION PARLIAMENT ADOPTS LAW ON PURCHASE OF FLATS

( Editorial: --> 4921 ) SARAJEVO, Feb 27 (Hina) - The House of Peoples of the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina adopted a law on the purchase of socially-owned flats on Thursday. The process of privatisation will not include some 2,000 nationalised flats which should be returned to their owners. The law, whose preparation lasted more than a year, sets the average price of one square meter of housing space at DM 600 with a possibility of an instalment payment period of 20 years. The Federation government expects that the sale of flats will secure some DM 500 million, which will enable the solution of housing problems of 5,000 to 7,000 families. Still unclear is the privatisation and terms of privatisation of 15,000 flats, whose pre-war tenancy right holders, currently refugees, could ask to return. The Federation government has also adopted a bill on the cessation of validity of a law on abandoned flats, which would annul war-time housing certificates and enable the return of pre-war tenants. However, this proposal has still not been adopted by the Federation parliament as there is no agreement on enabling returnees to buy off flats. The Bosniak (Muslim) side demands that the purchase of those flats be stopped for the next five years, saying it wants to prevent possible cases of speculation. (hina) jn rm 271235 MET feb 98