Government proposes lower housing saving incentives

The government on Thursday adopted draft amendments to the Housing Savings Act, reducing government incentives from 15 per cent to 10 per cent.
 

The highest amount of incentives that may be granted annually will be lowered from 750 kuna to 500 kuna, and this year the Ministry of Finance plans to discuss with banks and building societies different models of stimulating housing purchases, the government said at its meeting.

Finance Minister Slavko Linic said that the incentives were not being reduced for the sake of budget cuts, but because analyses had shown that they were spent on different purposes.

"We are stimulating housing purchases for people who don't intend to buy housing at all and we annually spend 160 million kuna from the budget for that purpose," he said, noting that a huge number of flats were vacant.

Construction Minister Anka Mrak Taritas said after the meeting that she was confident that the move would not have a significant impact on ongoing construction projects.

(Hina)
 

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