YOUTH POLICY

Affordable housing for young

Gov’t mulling plan for concession of state-owned properties at favorable rates to under-30s

Affordable housing for young

The government is preparing a formula for the concession of assets belonging to the Hellenic Public Properties Company (ETAD) as housing for young couples on low incomes.

The plan is still in the early stages of drafting, but will be the next step by the government in its policy to support young people that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced last Saturday in his keynote speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

Housing constitutes the main problem for young people who, as surveys show, are forced to keep living at home with their parents into their early 30s. By making the most of the properties in ETAD’s possession, the state intends to offer cheaper, quality solutions for those starting out in their adult lives.

The government aims to create an integrated national plan for young people that will include the concession of subsidized housing as well as other measures announced last Saturday, among them the abolition of mobile phone service taxes for those up to 29 and the subsidization of a young person’s employment for the first three years. More measures are set to follow, as the government puts this age group at the center of its attention.

Besides young people, the government is also keeping some of its other plans on the drawing board for now; their implementation will depend on the fiscal space expected to be created, mainly thanks to the unanticipated increase in the economy’s growth rate.

If there is adequate fiscal leeway, the next measures will concern the expansion of the solidarity levy suspension to the public sector and pensioners, and rendering the temporary measures of reducing the solidarity levy and social security contributions permanent.

Other matters that the government will be focusing on in the coming months are ways of increasing salaries and containing unemployment – both issues that also concern young people.

The Finance Ministry appears concerned about the energy rate hikes, but sees the increase of the consumer price index as a temporary phenomenon.

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