Social housing construction scheme in Croatia/Program drustveno poticane stanogradnje u Hrvatskoj

After it gained independence in 1991, the Republic of Croatia went through the Homeland War which caused not only the destruction of approximately 590 estates or 160 000 housing units but also the slowing down of economic activities, the slow postwar economic recovery and a smaller number of residential building projects. A chronic shortage of residences in big cities before the war was only aggravated by the migration of people from the war areas. The first organized housing scheme in the post-war period was the Homeland War Victims Housing Scheme launched in 1996 with the goal of providing housing for a growing number of people. The rest of the citizens were not included in the scheme and were left to the free housing market where the property demands and prices of housing units were on the rise. In the late 1990s, the Croatian government initiated the formation of the Social Housing Construction Scheme. It was supported by the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb with the goal of meeting housing requirements, improving the housing quality for a great number of people, and advancing architectural practice. The implementation of the scheme commenced in late 2001, and the main characteristics were its largescale and multi-level application. The experiences gained in the implementation of the Homeland War Victims Housing Scheme were used for this new government-backed project. Certain corrections made in the scheme included the sections related to the prescribed organisation parameters, housing standards and implementation conditions and possibilities. Efforts were also made in the area of construction in that the required number of housing units were to be built all over the country in a relatively short period of time and with an additional task of protecting the space from unplanned building. The Ministry of Construction and the Agency for Mediation and Transactions of Specific Real Estate Property were in charge of the implementation of the scheme. Additional provisions were made for the establishment of non-profit organisations on the local level which was an opportunity seized by the cities of Varazdin, Rijeka, Koprivnica and Dubrovnik. The obligation of the local government was to ensure a lot and public utilities, while the national government was to take care of the construction in the amount of 25% of the standard construction costs, from design, building, and supervision to value added tax. The costs of land development and public utilit