Preparations will be completed by the end of this year, and about 120 apartment buildings will be constructed by the end of 2011, with about 3,600 apartments for lease on a public-private partnership basis, the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Tourism, Transport and Development, Bozidar Kalmeta, said at a government session on Friday at which a housing programme for this category of people was adopted.
The ministry has received 4,425 applications for property restitution filed by people who previously lived in so-called socially-owned apartments, and has assessed that about 4,000 apartments need to be built or bought, Kalmeta said.
The government has to secure a total of 3.07 billion kuna for the implementation of this project, and the costs of construction would be repaid over a period of 25 years. Annual costs are estimated at 123 million kuna, and the ministry has already secured about 35 million kuna for this year.
The returnees would be given the status of privileged tenants and would pay privileged rent which currently amounts to 2.54 kuna per square metre.
The apartments will be state-owned, they will not be for sale and cannot be inherited, so that the government will be able to use them in dealing with welfare cases, Construction Minister Marina Matulovic Dropulic said.
The programme will be implemented through the National Real Estate Agency, and by the end of the year a public tender will be announced to select firms that will build the apartments.