The main pillars of the new National Housing Programme, an important aspect of “Rilindja 2.0”, were presented publicly today at a special meeting attended by Prime Minister Rama, Minister of Economy and Innovation Delina Ibrahimaj, and Minister of State for Local Government Ervin Demo.

The new National Housing Programme embodies a far-reaching structural reform aimed at fundamentally changing the approach to housing policies by expanding the instruments and opportunities available to support families and individuals, particularly young people and young families.

Overall, the National Programme has been structured around six main programmes:

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: This is a moment when the conditions have come together, following a year of intensive work, to make public the main pillars of the new National Housing Programme.

First, this is not simply a new national financial programme; it is a new national programme that embodies a very profound structural reform, which has now taken the form of a draft law. It will soon be submitted for public consultation and then to Parliament, to change our approach to this extremely important issue, one that is becoming increasingly pressing because of the difficulties faced by young families and young people in general on their path towards acquiring a home.  Let us be very clear: this is not a pressing issue simply and solely in Albania. This is not merely a local problem. It is a major European problem and, not only is it a major European problem, but the more developed the countries of Europe are, the greater the problem becomes. This is one of those outcomes of the development of recent years that we must address in a different way, because the development of the past decade has completely changed people’s outlook on the country and on their own place within it. So, “Rilindja 2.0” is a vision elevated to another level across a range of areas, and housing is one of its fundamental aspects.

There are six new programmes that we will address together and, when I say new, I do not mean inventions, because these are well-known concepts, but they are being “packaged” together within a comprehensive reform, as I said.

The first programme is the social rental housing programme. It is a well-established scheme that has been used over the years, but we will approach it in a new way. In practice, the provision of social rental housing will become a more comprehensive programme and will no longer simply mean waiting for something to be built and then hoping to get a home while standing in a long queue, without knowing how the selection process will ultimately end.

Social rental housing will include new construction, direct purchases from the market, the adaptation of state-owned properties or confiscated properties. And here I want to reiterate that we have confiscated quite a few properties and will confiscate every property that violates the rules laid down by law concerning construction permits. It will also include, of course, the rent subsidy, as well as public-private partnerships. So, we will use every available instrument to guarantee a much broader supply from the state for those who need and will be eligible to receive social rental housing.

Then we come to low-cost housing, which is another programme linked to state subsidies for loans, on the understanding that the home financed through the loan must fall within the low-cost housing category. For this, there is a clearly defined classification with clearly established criteria.

Then we come to the improvement of existing homes for vulnerable groups, as well as a specific infrastructure project and programme in informal areas, and the adaptation of certain properties into social housing.

The programme also introduces a new development through the creation of housing areas, and here we are not speaking only about social housing in the sense of housing exclusively for those most in need; we are speaking about all sections of society.

We do not want to build a residential block only for poor people. We want to create dignified residential developments for all sections of society, where those who are poor receive greater support to live there, while those who are better off will buy homes there. That is why quality is extremely important.

Our aim will be for the new housing areas to be high-quality areas in every respect, and this is entirely possible. The structural reform will also serve this purpose, with the National Territorial Planning Agency, the Territorial Development Agency, the relevant public entity and the municipalities functioning as a new system, while the Territorial Development Agency will be given new powers. Very soon, we will begin implementing this new programme in Tirana, and we are currently examining a few other areas in other municipalities. Naturally, all mayors are invited to submit their proposals.

The next programme is the temporary housing programme. We will also need to build temporary housing. In what sense? In the sense of having ready infrastructure available for people affected by natural disasters. Natural disasters have now become a constant companion in the life of this planet. Floods, fires, although, when it comes to fires, there is no small element of human malice and foolishness involved but regardless of that, it is a natural disaster for someone whose home becomes uninhabitable because of a fire. And while, of course, we will continue to strengthen our logistical and human capacities to respond to natural disasters in real time, or even to prevent them, we will also need to begin, step by step, creating a system for temporarily accommodating people affected by natural disasters.

And the sixth programme is what we might call the special housing programme: homes adapted for families with persons with disabilities or for individuals with disabilities.

I want to return to one figure that is important simply to provide some background, because today it is impossible to communicate facts and ensure that people have access to facts that reach them without being distorted along the way or “drowned” along the way in the “rivers of sludge” flowing through social media channels and taking over people’s minds and souls. These programmes and this new housing policy are not emerging in a vacuum. From 2018 to 2026, where we are today, 30,904 families have been supported through housing programmes in the Republic of Albania. 30,904 families!

When we presented the programme ahead of the elections one year ago a programme which, as I said at the time, was not an electoral programme but a governing programme  we spoke about 50,000 families by 2030 that would have the opportunity to receive a key to open the door to their own home, through all these different forms, naturally. And for anyone who has forgotten 50,000 keys were not a target simply thrown into the air ahead of an election campaign that, for us, was not a real challenge in terms of winning, but was a very real challenge in terms of the enormous burden of responsibility we asked to take on, because in the meantime 30,904 families have already been served through our housing policies.

Starting from this reference point, I will continue with the new policies for 2027.

We will provide 4,000 young couples with the key to a home, 4,000 young couples, according to criteria that will, of course, be made clear. This does not include the loans linked to the public administration; those are separate. Four thousand young couples divided into different categories.

There will be 2,000 zero-interest loans. So, for every apartment costing under €60,000 and here we are talking about small apartments, and I want to stress that all of these policies have been developed on the basis of a detailed study carried out by the working group on current housing policies in Europe and beyond for small apartments intended to help people begin their lives with a key in their hands, we will reduce the interest rate on the loan to zero. Another 2,000 loans will carry an interest rate of only 3% for apartments costing more than €60,000.

As the Minister said, our aim is not simply and solely to expand the social housing programme. Social housing is only one component. Housing for those who cannot afford it because of their income is only one component. Today, however, we are facing a very major problem that is global and European.

So, we are in a situation where we are not dealing only with those who cannot afford housing. We are also dealing with people who have started a new family, who have an income, but who cannot afford a home on that income.

The income ceiling, meaning the combined income of the couple, will be raised to 280,000 lek, which is above the average combined income of spouses in either the public or private sector, because these people, who represent Albania’s new middle class, need to be supported.

Then we come to the next component. Those are the loans.

We then come to another 3,000 opportunities to receive a key: 3,000 additional keys through rents subsidised by 50%. How often do we hear: “What am I supposed to do? I finished school, I work, but rent alone eats up half of what I earn.” Here too, priority will be given to young couples and returning emigrants who have the same family characteristics. In the first year, the national platform will cover 3,000 homes, with the state paying half of the rent.

So, once again, we are considering rents capped at €400. If you meet the criteria and have the opportunity to rent an apartment for €400, €200 will be paid by the Government of the Republic of Albania.

Then we come to the third policy, which is the affordable housing policy.

Today, the whole world is talking about social housing and affordable housing, because development has entered a new era that contains within it the paradox of success, and Albania has recently become part of this as well. The flamingos gave us the certificate.

Thirty per cent of our policy will be social housing, 40% will be affordable housing, and the remaining 30% will be sales on the open market.

Today, we are the only country in Europe that still does not have the component of construction by municipalities or by the state for social and affordable housing, combined with the possibility of generating a profit by selling part of what is built, so that the profit generated can then be reinvested in housing.

Meanwhile, we have a policy that is among the most progressive in Europe: a 3% levy on every construction project. People need to understand this. This government has imposed on those who are loosely referred to as oligarchs, because there are no oligarchs in Albania, there are wealthy people, the highest construction tax in the region. There is no comparable construction tax in the region.

When people see a tower, when people see an apartment building, they need to understand that this government, which grants permits to those who build, has built into those permits taxes that no developer elsewhere in the region pays. And part of those taxes is the 3% of the revenue from the sale of an apartment building that goes into the housing fund for those who cannot afford to buy an apartment in that building.

Now, can we afford to have that 3% accumulate into a staggering amount of money that simply sits there unused? What has been done with that 3%? Where are the buildings that were supposed to be built? Where are the apartments that people belonging to these categories were supposed to receive? Where are they?

They are there! They are there, but they are not being used. That is the first paradox, and people are right to say: “Fine, but where are we in all this development? All right, a beautiful tower was built. But where are we?”

Meanwhile, the government, our governing majority, has thought about where those people should be. Now is the time for us, as the government, together with local authorities and through instruments that guarantee success for both sides, to take this matter into our own hands.

The other paradox is Himara. Himara is Albania’s second wealthiest municipality in terms of revenue. Why? Taxes. We collect the taxes that belong to central government. In the past, people who earn more did not pay anything remotely close to what they pay today. Himara collects its taxes, but Himara does not need housing. There are no homeless people in Himara waiting for social housing to be built. And yet the money from the 3% levy is there. Does that make sense? It does not. Meanwhile, Himara needs other things.

So, the 3% levy will become an integral part of the National Housing Fund, and the National Housing Fund will collect all of these resources. Municipalities, in proportion to the level of their contribution, will cooperate with the National Fund. They will also cooperate with the National Housing Authority, which will be transformed into a public company that will no longer simply commission projects or conduct tenders, as it has done until now, but will enter partnerships, build, generate profit for the state and reinvest that profit.

Of course, this is also part of the fact that we have entered a new phase of governance and state-building, in which we have begun creating public companies of a kind that previously did not exist in Albania. And once again, we are accused of these public companies working for me and working for Delina, because, for Mr Demo, apparently only Berat works.

So, what are we supposed to do? What we are going to do is keep moving straight ahead and look only at the road in front of us. There are also five important pillars that form part of this policy, and I want to reiterate them.

First, the National Housing Fund will include contributions from the state budget. It will include the 3% levy that every type of developer in Albania will pay on every construction permit. It will include European Union funds, as well as funding secured from other sources.

Second, the 30-40-30 formula — 30% social housing, 40% affordable housing and another 30% for sale, in order to regenerate funds that will then be reinvested into the system will guide every construction and reconstruction process.

And on this occasion, I also want to tell the citizens of Tirana that, together with the Municipality of Tirana, and under the leadership of the Minister responsible for local government, we will very soon finalise the plan to bring to an end the endless and now unjustifiable story of Reconstruction, from Kombinat to 5 Maji and whatever else remains unfinished.

Since the Municipality of Tirana was effectively decapitated, for reasons that are known and for reasons that are not known, I believe that the first and most innocent victims of this unprecedented decapitation something unheard of in the history of the European Union and among European countries that are members of the Council of Europe have been the citizens themselves. There is no comparable case.

The Council of Europe has two cases more precisely, the Strasbourg Court has two cases and in both of them it ruled that the pre-trial detention of a local government leader, in one case somewhere in Hungary and in the other involving a mayor in Türkiye, was arbitrary.

Those are the democratic points of reference.

And then there is the case of Albania, which is far more serious and far more troubling than those other two cases. So, this decapitation and the social, legal, economic and political experiment of running a capital city without a head has created many victims.

Social groups in Tirana have paid for it through enormous damage, and the group most affected is made up of those families who are still waiting, at long last, to be handed the keys to their homes because they are victims of the earthquake.

And that is without even mentioning the other victims.

It has been an extraordinarily serious and completely failed experiment.

The third pillar concerns parking spaces. Parking is also part of the policy and is considered a necessary element of this new programme, under which 50% of parking spaces will be sold together with the housing units and the other 50% will be rented out.

Then there are five strategic groups that will be addressed in a targeted and strategic way, ranging from young couples to returning emigrants. There will also be a social stock of social and affordable housing.

Everything I have said here consists not of election pledges, but of the main pillars of the National Programme.

On the one hand, this programme will be materialized through Parliament, through the new law and through the comprehensive reform of the agencies that will administer it. On the other hand, it will be supported by all the necessary financial provisions in the 2027 budget. Soon, the relevant calls will also be published so that anyone interested in becoming part of this process can begin preparing.

I believe that the 4,000 keys under one programme and the 3,000 keys under the other programme make a total of 7,000 keys for 2027. For 2027 alone.

And that does not include all the other components; it refers only to those two programmes At the same time, we are not including here the subsidized loans provided to teachers, police officers and young members of the Armed Forces, which will continue.

So, I am fully confident that by 2030 there will be yet another reason alongside the many reasons we already have for the governing majority to feel proud, based on the results that this entire new housing policy under “Rilindja 2.0” will deliver. There are many other details, but I will not tire you of them. That is all from me.

Minister, since you are the bridge between us and the mayors, if you would like to correct or add anything, or invite any of your colleagues to take the floor, please do so.