The minister asks us not to “demonize” the zero percent loan. The coalition partners know better
The project of loan subsidies is being written and will be announced soon, the Minister of Development keeps repeating. He also appealed not to “demonize” a zero percent loan, because for many people it is the only way to buy their own apartment.
The Startup Loan promised in last year’s election campaign is still a ghost project. First, in late spring, it disappeared from the agenda altogether and all market observers assumed that the Ministry of Development had withdrawn from the subsidy project, which was criticized due to fears that it would repeat the fate of the Safe 2% loan. and will increase real estate prices. In the summer, the Ministry announced that the work was ongoing, and since August there have been “leaks” announcing that any day now, next week we will learn about the project. We didn’t meet him, which this time was blamed on the flood and the need to deal with issues in the south of Poland, as well as budget shifts.
Minister Paszyk on “demonizing” subsidies
In the absence of specifics, the market is unstable. Some sellers do not post offers because they believe that when subsidies appear, interest in purchases will increase. Buyers refrain from transactions because firstly, a square meter in cities and the immediate vicinity is very expensive, and secondly, they do not want to deprive themselves of the possibility of benefiting from subsidies. And so those in power keep everyone in suspense.
In his conversations with journalists, the Minister of Development and Technology Krzysztof Paszyk repeats the same thing we heard in August: that in a week or two the topic will return at the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers, i.e. a meeting of ministers who are somehow related to the economy and finances.
On Friday, on Radio Plus, he argued to “end the demonization of zero percent credit.”
– 50 percent young Poles have no prospects for their own apartment. These are dramatic data. So we are putting a solution on the table that supports municipal, social and proprietary construction. At the same time, 97 percent all premises in Poland are ownership premises, so I cannot imagine a support program that will not support and help in obtaining a flat that is a ownership flat – said Krzysztof Paszyk.
Start-up loan. Time flies, the coalition partners do not soften
The passage of time does not make coalition partners more willing to support the project. Already in the spring, the left announced that it would not support any program that could reward developers and that it would focus on social housing. It also suggests ways to obtain money for the construction of municipal apartments or for cheap rent. One of them is the taxation of vacant buildings, which, according to the Central Statistical Office’s calculations, amount to nearly 2 million in our country. In the text below we explain why the proposal is risky to say the least.
Poland 2050 is skeptical about the project announced by Krzysztof Paszyk, and the Minister of Funds, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, regularly criticizes the idea.
There is ongoing uncertainty about the future of the housing market, and prices continue to limit the average family’s dreams of owning a home. Although they have stopped growing since last year (in some cities there are even reductions, but of a symbolic nature – 1 or 2 percent down, depending on whether developers “threw” cheaper offers), they remain at a high level. Absurd from the point of view of an average family with children, even one in which the parents earn more than the average wage (in August it was PLN 8,189.74 gross, i.e. a little over PLN 6,000 net).
This is how much salary you need to buy an apartment
In Warsaw, the average metro price exceeds PLN 16,000. PLN, which means that the inhabitants of the capital have to save for a 55-square-meter apartment for eight years (92 salaries) with the completely abstract assumption that they would save their entire salary for the apartment. For comparison, last year 88 salaries were needed, and in 2022 – 84 – calculated by “Rzeczpospolita”.
The situation is no better in other cities: a resident of Krakow would have to save 84 salaries, and in Wrocław – 81. The cheapest of the larger agglomerations is Poznań, where it is enough to save 75 average salaries for an apartment.
Borrowers could be helped by the Monetary Policy Council, which decides on the interest rates. Currently, the reference rate is 5.75% and has remained unchanged since October 2023. This is a high level that significantly increases the cost of loans – they are among the most expensive in Europe. However, there are no signals that the Monetary Policy Council is willing to lower rates.