"Home is a right and not a product," Czarzasty said, adding that the for-rent housing construction programme was one of the New Left's key projects.
Jerzy Muszyński/PAP
The New Left has unveiled a programme designed to build 300,000 affordable apartments for rent in the coming five years to help especially young people find their own homes.
“These apartments will be owned by the state or by local governments,” Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the New Left co-chairman, told reporters in Koszalin, north-western Poland, on Monday.
According to Czarzasty, the Polish people do not perceive security as only the protection of borders or strengthening the army but also as social and housing safety.
“And today, there is a lack of around 1.5 million apartments in Poland,” Czarzasty said, adding that 60 percent of Poles aged 25-30 live with their parents while in Denmark their proportion amounts to 4 percent, and in Germany to 18 percent.
In Czarzasty’s opinion, housing loans are “not a good idea” as young people do not have borrowing capacity and thus cannot buy an apartment.
In order to solve this problem, at least 300,000 apartments for rent should be built in Poland in the coming five years, Czarzasty said, adding that their construction should be financed from taxes.
“Home is a right and not a product,” Czarzasty said, adding that the for-rent housing construction programme was one of the New Left’s key projects.
The current Law and Justice (PiS) government tried to increase the availability of apartments for rent under its Apartment Plus programme, but the scheme proved unsuccessful and was quietly phased out. In July, PiS introduced its Safe Mortgage programme for people under 45 who do not own a flat, which offers a fixed 2-percent interest rate. However, critics say the scheme is not viable in big cities, where prices of most flats exceed the upper borrowing limit and complain the programme has immediately boosted property prices across Poland, making flats even less available for those not eligible to take out the government-subsidised mortgage.