<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Civic Network of South Tyrol

Welcome to South Tyrol

Housing

Despite extensive building in recent years there still exists in South Tyrol (and particularly in the provincial capital) a significant housing shortage. With the approval by the Provincial government in April 1995 of the building plans drawn up by the municipality of Bozen the conditions were created for the municipality of Bozen to solve its housing problem. In the planning period 1995-2000 some 3,000 new dwellings will be built. In the expansion zone along Bozen's Drusus Street building is already in progress. According to the 1991 census there was a total of 166,673 dwellings in South Tyrol (of which 22,012 were unoccupied, partially unoccupied or were holiday homes).

Since the Reform Law of 1972 came into effect and up to the end of 1998 the housing committee. responsible for the administration of housing construction subsidies, has given some 21,033 loans for the building or purchase of owner-occupied dwellings. For the same purpose since 1984 some 17,802 ten-year fixed grants have been provided (the so-called middle income support). 6,870 owner-occupiers have received from the Province subsidies for the renovation of their dwelling. A total of 45,931 families have therefore received provincial subsidies for the construction, purchase or renovation of their owner-occupied homes. The Provincial Institute for Public Housing now-called Institute for Social Housing is in possession of 10,849 dwellings, 5,393 of them are in Bozen. Within the framework of so-called property subsidies 23,425 dwellings were renovated. With regard to these dwellings the owners had to undertake to sell them on or to rent them out only to indigenous families.

Public funding of housing construction has constantly played a big political role in South Tyrol. Already with the first Autonomy Statute powers relating to housing were transferred from the State to the Autonomous Province, but the corresponding executive measures were not issued for a long time so that up to 1959 the State built housing in South Tyrol which was almost exclusively given to Italian families. Even in 1984 of the 12,024 publicly built dwellings in South Tyrol 8,226 (68.4 per cent) were inhabited by Italian-speaking tenants, while 3,676 (30.5 per cent) were inhabited by German-speaking tenants and 122 (one per cent) were inhabited by Ladin-speaking tenants.

The decisive turning-point came with the second Autonomy Statute and the 1972 Provincial Housing Reform Law, under which ethnic proportions were applied to public housing. Dwellings built up until then and administered by the state or public bodies were transferred to the Province. For the administration of its housing and for the construction of dwellings for rent the Province makes use of the Institute for Social Housing. With the Provincial Housing Reform Law of 1972 new pioneering building regulations were issued, the release of building land was strictly controlled and designed to conserve the countryside, and new building zones were on principle divided in two (one half of the building zone had to be given over to the municipality for public housing and the other half for private property). Since the new Regional Development Law (L.G. of 11 October 1997, n.13) came into effect, 60 per cent of the building land and the actual building permitted in the new expansion zones must be given to the municipality for public housing. Since the Housing Reform Law of 1972 came into effect, 1,000 plans relating to the expansion zones have been approved. They apply to an area of about 1,000 hectares, of which about 370 hectares are destined for public housing, 365 hectares for private housing and 162 hectares for development facilities. The rest of the area, containing buildings already built before the designation of the building zones, is subject to building regulations. The public housing laws of the Province are continually adapted to requirements. In December 1998, a new organic public housing law has been adapted by the Provincial Assembly, which, as a unitary text, replaces all existing provincial laws which have been in force in the field of housing. Furthermore, it contains several reforms and new measures, for example the special financial support of the families or the introduction of a fourth income level.

In general the Province of South Tyrol has considerably more funds available for subsidised housing, than what the other Italian regions receive from the State. The housing subsidies of the Province are used as follows:
  1. Rented accommodation:
    The Institute for Social Housing builds or buys dwellings and lets them out at an economical rent (between 10 and 25 per cent of income) to low-income families or single persons, who do not exceed a stated income level. In March 1999 a new regulation concerning the rent contributions was introduced. In 2001, the Institute has at its disposal a total of 10,849 dwellings for rent of which 46 per cent were rented out to Germans, 52 per cent to Italians and two per cent to Ladins. In 1988 the South Tyrolese Assembly passed a Provincial Law allowing tenants to buy public housing.
  2. Housing assistance for small savers:
    Persons who do not exceed a stated income level and who fulfil a number of other conditions and have a certain number of points on the basis of his special family and social situation, can obtain an interest-free loan or a loan at favourable rates of interest from the Province either for building or buying a dwelling. The amount of the loan can vary between 100 and 200 million lire, depending on the size of the family. The loan is repayable in 15 years or, if there are special family or social circumstances, in 20 years.
  3. Middle income support:
    Persons who do not exceed a stated income level and who wish to build or buy a home can apply for a fixed grant over a ten year period. This grant varies according to income level and amounts to six, five, four or three percent of the legal construction costs of a dwelling with 110 square metres gross floor area. A minimum point count, unlike in the first two categories, is not required.
  4. Renovation:
    For support for the restoration of dwellings the same conditions apply regarding the basis housing requirements of applicants as for support for the construction dwellings. Instead of the 23 points normally allowed for support for new construction of a dwelling, 20 points are sufficient for renovation support. The upper limits of the loan are the same as for new construction of a dwelling. Instead of the loan one can also apply for a grant which amount to 50 per cent of the potential loan for the lowest income level and 40 per cent of the loan to the next lowest. The actual renovation work can be applied either to maintenance of a dwelling or to the demolition and reconstruction of a building.
  5. Subsidised restoration:
    On condition that the restored dwelling is let or sold to a native resident, the Province can take up part of the interest payments on mortgages (to a maximum of eight per cent for ten years).
  6. Rent money:
    For tenants of private dwellings who do not exceed stated income levels the Province can be the difference between the rent as laid down in the contract and the rent charged by the Institute of Social Housing. In this way these tenants are put on the same level as tenants of the Institute.

Further financial support can be given by the Province in cases of natural catastrophe and social hardship as well as for the purchase and the making available of building land. For the construction and renovation of farm dwellings and outhouses, funds can be obtained from the Agricultural Assessorat quite separately from normal housing construction support measures. for the renovation of old farm-houses.

The new organic public housing law (L.G.n.13 of 17 December 1998) contains several new measures and legal requirements. Thanks to the introduction of a new fourth income level now also the so-called better or double wage-earners have the possibility to receive a subsidy. Furthermore, the stated income levels regarding the subsidies in public housing have been adapted to the inflation development of the last years, so that an average increase of the stated income levels of about nine per cent has occurred. All these reforms (introduction of a fourth income level, increase of the stated income levels and the subsidies, etc.) will lead to the end, that more and more South Tyrolese citizens will be able to get in possession of an owner-occupied flat.