Filenews 20 July 2022 - by Vassos Vassiliou
The citizens who would find themselves hanging in the "affordable rent" plan were left hanging, since after the abolition of the program of "golden" passports, due to the abuses that took place and exposed Cyprus internationally, the fund intended for the construction of the affordable apartments shrunk.
Specifically, while the basket was large and provided for a payment of €100,000 by each foreign investor to the Cyprus Land Development Organization for social housing policy purposes, finally with the abolition of the program, instead of €35 million the CMO received approximately €10 million so the plan has been turned upside down. The Organization, after counting its beans and in its effort to save what it can in terms of funds, decided to cut costs and in this context the process of calling architectural competitions that helped to start the construction of buildings beyond the standard ones that were applied from time to time is also terminated. From now on, the plans will be prepared by the Organization itself, which has led to reactions from ETEK members.
According to information, ETEK considers that the savings will not be significant since the employees of the CMO who will prepare the plans will be paid, so the salaries and operating costs will approach the cost of the architectural competitions, in the context of which the plans were prepared by private designers. There is also a prevailing opinion that due to the finances, the planning of the KOAG is being overturned, which will not only affect the projects that were to be implemented, but the internal preparation of the plans will lengthen their completion time, thus further delaying the implementation of the projects.
The president of KOAG, Elena Kousiou, commenting on the reports of reversal of the planning, told "F", that after taking into account the new economic data, the KOAG had to readjust its action, in order to implement the planning as much as possible. Ms. Kousiou acknowledged that delays may occur but noted that under the circumstances the options were limited. KOAG employs two architects and civil engineers, while the technical department consists of 18 people and all together will carry out what is required to implement our goals, which are to ensure affordable rent to families who cannot afford to build a privately owned unit or rent, said Ms. Kousiou. In response to a question, the president of the KOAG said that the rent will not be determined on the basis of the market rent with a discount, but on the basis of the income of each family.
At the same time, the KOAG, in addition to the construction of buildings for rent by relatively vulnerable groups, continues to promote the construction of buildings for purchase by those who meet the criteria.
It is noted that if the Cyprus Investment Program were not interrupted, the CYPRUS INVESTMENT FUND would receive €35 million from passports and would borrow another approximately €35 million and with the total he would construct buildings for rent, so the number of apartments and by extension the families that would benefit, would be many times greater.
Regarding the architectural competitions, which are considered to have upgraded the quality of the design, the KOAG recognizes their usefulness but at the same time observes that one of the reasons that were chosen was the prospect of an influx of tens of millions of euros for the construction of buildings, so emphasis was given to the acceleration of the design processes, something that went beyond the established and added to the quality of design.
We will do everything we can to make good use of the funds intended mainly for the economically most vulnerable, stressed Ms. Kousiou.
