As much as 70 percent of young people have a negative attitude towards the subsidized housing loans intended for them, and only 0,3 percent applied for them, according to research by the Umbrella Organization of Youth of Serbia (KOMS).
Subsidized housing loans for young they experienced a complete fiasco, confirms a recent survey of the Umbrella Organization of Youth of Serbia (KOMS). It showed that about 70 percent of young people do not think about taking out such a loan, while only 0,3 percent of them sent a request for the approval of such loans. credit.
Pavle Smiljanić, a citizen of Belgrade, is 31 years old and wanted to take out a subsidized housing loan for young people, so he checked the state of the real estate market in Belgrade.
He told "Vreme" that he looked at about twenty ads and visited about ten apartments, mostly in the outskirts of the city, such as Rakovica.
"Basically, there is no apartment that costs less than 100.000 euros, except for some studio apartments from the seventies in very, very bad condition. People were mostly uninterested when they heard that I wanted to apply for a subsidized housing loan for young people, they were looking for either a regular housing loan or cash," says Smiljanić.
Regular loans seem "safer"
As a rule, the sellers' argument against the subsidized student loan was that the standard loan is "more reliable", that it is obtained faster and that it seems "safer" in general.
"Mostly everyone wanted cash, so after two weeks I stopped looking for apartments. I told myself that I should wait to see if anyone else tried or succeeded in getting a subsidized housing loan, but I haven't met anyone who has succeeded. I don't even know anyone who is trying to get that loan. There are no more properties in Belgrade that are suitable for that loan. I will collect, I don't know when, the down payment for a standard loan, so I will try," concludes Smiljanić.
In addition to him, three other young people, who insisted on anonymity, told "Vreme" the same problems that caused them to give up trying to take out that loan very soon after the Law on Subsidized Housing Loans for Young People was adopted.
A student at the Faculty of Pharmacy told us that "one gets the impression that in Serbia everyone who wants to buy an apartment is full of cash, because no one wants to even hear about selling for a regular loan, and some even openly laugh at the mention of a subsidized loan for young people."
Young people are generally suspicious of loans
KOMS program manager Gordana Adamov tells "Vreme" that the majority of young people's attitude towards loans is negative, and that in a KOMS survey, around 37 percent of them said that loans should be avoided in general because they "primarily serve the banking lobby".
On the other hand, about 30 percent of young people think that loans are a great thing, but that the interest rates are too high.
"When it comes to specific subsidized loans for young people to buy apartments, as many as 70 percent of them have a negative attitude towards that measure, which is also shown by statistics, because according to our research, only 0,3 percent of young people applied for those subsidized loans," says Adamov.
Explaining why this is so, Adamov states that other programs and projects of KOMS that included consultations on the Law on subsidized housing loans for young people (full title: Law on establishing a guarantee scheme and subsidizing part of the interest as a measure to support young people in buying their first residential real estate) showed that young people generally believe that the state takes care of them in the short term and that there is no systemic approach.
"The practice is that institutions in Serbia, unfortunately, adopt very short-term measures for young people, such as financial aid of 150 euros during the corona virus pandemic. In addition, young people were excluded during the creation of that law, and the practice should be such that the target group for which the public policy is intended is consulted," says Adamov.
No one asks young people anything.
In creating the law, she emphasizes, not only were young people not involved, but not even the relevant Ministry of Tourism and Youth.
"The law was primarily created by representatives of the Ministry of Finance and representatives of banking associations," says Adamov.
Since taking out a loan also requires constant income, and not all young people have the opportunity to have older family members as guarantors for the loan, Adamov also says that research has shown that in 70 percent of cases, young people needed less than a year to find a job, while about 16 percent of them looked for a job between one and three years.
He emphasizes that these percentages refer to those who do the jobs for which they were educated.
"However, almost half of young people are not employed in the position for which they were educated, and KOMS has been pointing out this problem for years. This indicates the incompatibility of the education system with the labor market. At the same time, a huge percentage of young people are ready to retrain in order to find an adequate job," says Adamov.
How to become independent if parents are guarantors?
She points out that young people, when it comes to economic independence, believe that they need a salary of more than 130.000 dinars for a decent life, while the KOMS research shows that only slightly more than 10 percent of young people earn 130.000 dinars or more.
"That's why when we talk about housing independence measures, we can't talk about it without measures to support economic independence. The law provides that young people who have no income can take out a loan if they have a guarantor from a creditworthy family member, but this can be a discriminatory measure, because there are young people without parents or guardians. At the same time, there are young people whose family members are not creditworthy, that is, they are older and cannot fit into the 20 to 35-year-old framework on the one hand, we are talking about independence, and if the parents were to repay the loan to young people, it cannot mean that they have become independent," Adamov points out.
Because of all of the above, but also because of the state's general attitude towards them, the majority of young people in KOMS surveys say that they think that their voice is not important in the existing system.
"Nevertheless, the general impression of our research this year is optimistic, because more than 90 percent of young people are ready to go to the polls and vote, even though they believe that the elections in Serbia are not free and unfair," concludes Adamov.
And for the first time, the majority of young people believe that democracy is the best form of government. Student protests have changed the general opinion of young people regarding their involvement in political issues.
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