Rental Housing Units for Young People Construction Programme addresses the needs of young people aged 18 to 35 on the submission date of the application for the assignment of a rental dwelling built under the NHA programmes, who cannot afford to buy or rent a housing unit on the free market.

Young people may submit their applications and the required documents to the local authorities in the area where these housing units are located.  

Young people who have submitted the necessary documents and turned 35 without having been assigned such a housing unit may be assigned a dwelling before their turning 38.  

The funds used to finance building works come from the state budget, domestic/foreign loans, amounts resulting from the sale of former rental housing units for young people, as well as from other legally constituted sources.

The dwellings (studio or two-rom flats in low-rise buildings) are built on lands made available to the National Housing Agency by the local/central authorities which also give the agency the right to use the lands free of any charges during the necessary period of time for completion.

The local authorities also provide the necessary infrastructure (utilities).

The rental housing units for young people are built through the National Housing Agency and, on completion, they are handed over to the local public authorities so that these institutions could manage and assign them to young people meeting the criteria regulating the access to such dwellings.

The framework-criteria regulating the access to rental housing units for young people and the criteria used to determine the hierarchy based on a scoring system, which the authorities employ to establish lists of priorities, are set out in the Government Decision no. 962/201  on the approval of the Methodological Norms  for the enforcement of the Law no. 152/1998 on the establishment of the National Housing Agency, with its subsequent amendments. (Annex 11 is presented below).

The local public authorities assign the housing units to the young people taking into account the order established through the lists of priorities made according to the legal provisions and within the limit of the existing housing  stock available for this purpose. They also calculate and collect the rent and may sell the flats only at the request of the tenants who occupy them, in accordance with the law.

At the end of a minimum  one-year continuous lease, the tenants can buy the flats they live in. The sale is not conditional upon the age of the tenants. They may buy their rental unit in various ways: by paying the price of the flats they occupy in full using their own money and/or loans taken out from authorised financial institutions, including loans granted with the state guarantee, within maximum 5 working days from the day when the right of ownership is recorded in the land book, or in monthly equal instalments including the corresponding interest, with a minimum down payment representing 15% of the sale value, to the local public authorities managing the dwellings;

The replacement value per square meter which is used to calculate the sale price of the initially rented housing units is revised annually. The current replacement value amounts to 1.916,42 lei/sqm, inclusive of VAT.

The amount resulting from the sale of these flats are used to finance other rental housing units for young people.

IMPORTANT 

The rental housing units for young people may be bought by the leaseholders (tenants) at the end of a minimum one-year continuous lease. If you live in a rental housing unit built through the National Housing Agency and you want to buy it, you may turn to the local council managing the building.

ANNEX 11 to the Methodological Norms approved by the Government Decision no. 962/2001 with its subsequent amendments

FRAMEWORK CRITERIA

FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ORDER OF PRIORITY REGARDING THE HOUSING APPLICATIONS AND THE ASSIGNMENT OF RENTAL HOUSING UNITS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

A. Criteria establishing the access to a housing unit:

1. The person applying for a rental housing unit for young people must be of age, under the age of 35 on their application submission date and may be assigned a housing unit within 12 months from the date of their turning 35.

The application for a housing unit is made only individually and in the applicant’s own name.

2. The applicant and the other members of the applicant’s family – spouse, children and/or other dependants must not own or must not have owned a housing unit and/or have not been living as a tenant in another rental housing unit owned by the state, the administrative- territorial unit or the unit where they carry out their activity in the locality where they applied for a dwelling. As far as Bucharest sectors are concerned, this restriction refers to dwellings that were or are owned in this municipality, irrespective of the sector. The area this requirement refers to shall be determined by the local councils with the approval of the Ministry of Regional Development, Public Administration and European Funds in the spirit and correlated with the things stipulated for the access criteria in sub-paragraph no. 3.
Supporting documents: legalized statements of the applicant and, as the case may be, legalized statements of the applicant’s spouse and of the other family members of the applicant, who are of age.

NOTE :

The restriction regarding the fact that the applicants must not own a dwelling does not refer to housing units alienated as a result of a divorce (property adjustment) or abusively nationalized housing units which have not been subject to restitution in kind. This restriction does not apply to applicants living in rented spaces in hostels for single people or married couples as well as tenants living in abusively nationalized houses which are subject to restitution claims or are returned to their former owners. Hostels for single people or married couples are rental multi-room buildings with common areas, communal facilities and annexes. Also, the restriction does not apply when the applicant and the other members of the applicant’s family – spouse, children and/or other dependants jointly own, with other people, shares in a dwelling, acquired according to the law.

3. The applicant for a housing unit must carry on his/her activity in the locality where the housing unit is situated. The area which this requirement refers to shall be determined by the local councils with the approval of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration. The possibility of extending this area outside the boundaries of the locality in which the housing unit was applied for in cases justified by the existence of industrial platforms, work centres of local economic units in the locality, social protection institutions, airports, river or sea boats, touristic units, cultural centres, sports centres, amusement centres and other such cases where the applicants carry out their activity shall be taken into account.

NOTE:

By exception, when the area this criterion refers to is extended, the applicants which carry out their activity outside the boundaries of the locality where the housing units are situated must prove that they have had permanent residence in that locality for at least a year.

4. The assignment of the housing units is made within the limits of the available housing stock, taking into account both the vacant housing units from the existing housing stock and the housing units to be completed under sub-projects approved and included in the Programme regarding the rental housing construction for young people.

NOTE :

- The list of priorities is established every year.

- The applicants on the list of priorities, in observance of the criteria stipulated in sub-paragraphs 1, 2 and 3, who cannot be assigned a housing unit within the limits of the available housing stock in a particular year, may be assigned housing units during the following years, within the limits of the yearly available housing stock and according to the new established order of priority.

B: Criteria used to determine the hierarchy, established by a scoring system:

NOTE:

In the case of people on sufferance, the total living area of the housing unit is divided by the total number of occupants including those who do not belong to the applicant’s family but live in the samehousing unit. In the case of rented housing spaces, the living area occupied according to the lease is divided by the number of the applicant’s family members only. The family composition defined under Letter A, sub-paragraph 2 shall be taken into account when establishing the number of the applicant’s family members.

NOTE:

The last level of studies completed and attested according to the law shall be taken into account.

NOTE :

- The criteria determining the hierarchy, established by the scoring system, shall be applicable only to applicants for housing units who have met all the criteria stipulated under Letter A above.
- If there are cases when the scores (number of points) are equal, the applicants shall be differentiated depending on housing conditions ascertained on the effective date when the housing unit is assigned, the applicants whose housing conditions are or may imminently become serious having priority only in such a case. If this criterion is not sufficient, the differentiation may be made depending on the age of the application, taking into account the effective date on which the application was registered (day/month/year), the applicant whose application is the oldest having priority in this case. If the differentiation cannot still be made on the basis of these criteria, the applicants whose score determined on the basis of social protection-related criteria (marital status + current health condition) is the highest have priority.

- In the case of dwellings exclusively meant to be rented by young education or health professionals specific criteria supplementing the ones specified by the framework criteria may be proposed and adopted, in accordance with the law.