The Number of Uninhabited Dwellings in Bulgaria is Growing, Could be Used for Social Housing

The number of uninhabited housing in Bulgaria is growing. They are 1,220,416 or more than 31 percent of all homes in the country, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW) announced.
 
At the same time, more and more people do not have the chance to acquire their own residential property or need support to rent. Therefore, one of the main tasks in housing management in Bulgaria is to find ways to reduce the number of uninhabited dwellings and increase their usability. This is one of the goals set out in the National Housing Strategy, which was uploaded to the MRDPW website for public discussion.

The strategy states that housing is constantly growing. In the period up to 2020, the construction boom from 2007-2009 will be surpassed with the construction of about 20,000 dwellings per year. These forecasts are based on the expected economic growth in the country and the growing investment interest, which is expressed in the search for land and the large number of issued building permits. The number of dwellings exceeds the number of households and housing consumption is comparable to that in the EU (550 dwellings / 1000 inhabitants). But the problem is that financial access to housing is getting worse. The cost / income ratio is rising. In 2015, according to NSI data, the cost of housing exceeds 6.6 times the income. For comparison in 2013 this ratio is 6.3 or the share of people in need of support for the acquisition or rental of housing is increasing.
 
Another problem identified in the strategy is that public housing is reduced to a symbolic share of 2.4 percent. It is difficult to manage because of its dispersion among private condominiums and municipalities have limited resources to maintain it.

The conclusion is...

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