Establishment of MUNICIPAL/CITY HOUSING AGENCIES

The reform of the housing sector in Serbia has been initialized through the transformation of Solidarity Funds for Housing Construction into Municipal Housing Agencies, as the basic implementing instruments of a new social housing system in the country. MHAs are considered as the first basic form of non-profit housing organization which is assigned for implementation / development and management of social housing programmes.
Principles and guidelines for establishment of MHAs were formulated with the wider participation of local authorities, professionals and politicians, representatives of the national government and national housing experts with the technical assistance of UN-HABITAT. Those principles are fully built into the statutory documents of all MHAs. The model of MHAs is introduced at wider national level through the Social Housing Law, which was drafted in 2004 and adopted by the National Assembly of Serbia on 30 August 2008.

Within the framework of SIRP, six new Housing Agencies were established with the aim to:

• Contribute to the creation of the necessary preconditions for defining local housing policy
• Manage of rental social housing and affordable housing projects
• Implement local social housing policy
• Manage and maintain the public social rental housing stock
• Service mortgage loans for beneficiaries purchasing apartments
• Develop new programs of social housing financing
• Function as a link with final beneficiaries

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