Brno’s local government (“Zastupitelstvo”) approved the “Cooperative Housing for Young People” initiative at its Tuesday meeting. The goal of the initiative is to support young people up to 36 years of age with limited income who do not reach the requirements for a standard mortgage loan but can afford to pay monthly payments. Co-operative housing will be built in the districts of Černovice and Nový and Starý Lískovec. Photo credit: Katerina Xagorari.
Brno, Sep 9 (BD) – The new cooperative housing program has a few simple conditions. The basic membership fee will be 10,000 CZK. When participants sign the loan contract, they will pay from 400,000-700,000 CZK. The loan is paid off within a maximum of 25 years from signing the contract, during which time participants in the scheme send monthly payments until they become the owners of their property. “By establishing a housing cooperative, the city wants to guarantee project participants better conditions for the construction of a house when negotiating with the bank or the co-contractor. In this way, the city wants to help young people,” First Deputy Mayor of Brno Petr Hladík says according to the official press release.
Several areas have been selected for cooperative housing in Brno: Kaménky in Černovice; the Kamenný vrch II. area of Nový Lískovec; and Západní brána in Starý Lískovec. The city is planning the construction of around 1,500 apartments in these areas; some of those will be cooperative housing and some will be municipal, paid for by the city.
“It will be important that applicants who wish to enter [the cooperative housing program] meet certain conditions that may change over the years. These include, for example, that the applicant must be a citizen of the Czech Republic or an EU Member State. Applicants may be spouses or partners, as well as single-parents,” Deputy Mayor Hladík explained on the City of Brno’s website. “It is realistic to expect the program to be implemented in the years 2018 to 2030; the first people should move in in four years,” he added.
Registration of participants is expected to begin on Monday, October 1. Registration forms and more information will be available on the website of the Department of Housing of Brno Municipality.
Get the news first! Subscribe to our daily newsletter here. Top stories of the day in your mailbox every morning.