At a meeting with voters in Łódź, President Tusk unexpectedly blurted out that “a flat is a right, not a commodity”, and then stated that if the PO comes to power, he will offer a housing loan for the first apartment for people under 45 at zero percent and added additional subsidies for renting apartments in the amount of PLN 600 per month.
Tusk stole one of the left’s slogans?
He did not provide any calculations regarding the loan or rent subsidies, he only stated that it would cost the state budget PLN 4 billion in the first year, so it is not clear whether the number of such loans granted each year will be limited and how many years will the state subsidize such a loan.
The left reacted very nervously to Tusk’s proposals, especially politicians from the Together party, who were the first to introduce the slogan “housing as a right, not a commodity” into the public debate and immediately claimed that the chairman of the PO had stolen one their election slogans.
The developers, Janusz Wojciechowski, one of the largest owners of JW Construction in Warsaw, spoke very kindly on this subject, saying, among other things, “maybe it’s even too big a nod to us”.
“Political promises only bind those who believe in them.”
This housing proposal from Tusk (it’s hard to call it a housing program, although PO politicians call it that), is not accompanied by any substantive justification or any calculation, so perhaps its announcement is intended to divert attention from the serious problems for this party, including the arrests of its key activists in connection with the Warsaw garbage scandal.
Even if this were not the case, it should be remembered here how PO politicians have approached the implementation of any election promises or commitments in the past.
Overheard in the restaurant “Owl and Friends” (so sincere), leading PO politicians, such as Radosław Sikorski and Jan Vincent Rostowski, “joked” in reference to election promises, “promise twice as keeping once”, or “Political promises bind only those who believe in it.”
The housing proposal presented by the head of the PO seems to confirm the assumption that there is no price that the Polish state would not pay, according to Tusk, for the slogan “removal of PiS from power”, which the PO has been pushing for several years. executed.
PiS program “First Apartment”
The housing program presented by the Cabinet of Law and Justice in mid-December last year looks very different in every respect.
The program has two pillars, the first pillar offers young people applying for their first apartment the opportunity to get a loan with a fixed interest rate of 2%, the second offers the possibility to save flexibly for an apartment for up to 10 years, with an attractive interest rate that is higher than inflation.
The first pillar makes it possible to buy an apartment on the primary or secondary market, based on the loan obtained up to PLN 500,000. PLN for a single household, or PLN 600,000. PLN for a larger household.
The loan has an interest rate of 2% and the difference from the market rate is paid by the state for the first 10 years, then with this fee.
Who can benefit from the program?
The second pillar of this program is to create a very attractive form of savings for a future apartment, for a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 10 years, with monthly payments ranging from PLN 500 to PLN 2,000. PLN (a minimum of 11 payments per year is required).
The interest on such a housing account will, in addition to the bank interest, have additional interest in the amount of the average annual inflation or the average increase in the price of a square meter of housing (depending on which indicator will be more favorable to the saver in a given year).
This extra interest is added to the savings annually, provided that the saver spends this money on residential purposes within 5 years after the end of the savings period.
The program will also be available to families who own their own premises in which they live (up to 50 m2 with two children, up to 75 m2 with three children, up to 90 m2 with four children and no limit with five or more children), and now they want to improve your living conditions.
Will we return to high unemployment after PO comes to power?
After it was possible to reduce unemployment in Poland to the lowest level in the EU (Poland was among the top three EU countries with the lowest unemployment rate for many years), which in turn resulted in the emergence of a labor market, and not like employers, after a clear rise in wage levels (including the introduction of the minimum hourly wage and annual substantial increases in the minimum wage), PIT reductions, with a zero rate for young people up to the age of 26, and finally also numerous aid programs for families raising children (500 plus, 300 plus, care capital or a daycare program), the recently announced housing program is a kind of conclusion to the proposal of the government of Law and Justice aimed at young people.
No other government in free Poland has done more for young people, so let’s hope they are not fooled by political parties who do not have a positive real offer for them, because Tusk’s housing proposal is just “chutzpah” and so is it even the economists who supported the Platform rated it.
One can even be convinced that when the PO comes to power, we will again have high unemployment and the only offer for young people will go abroad again for the proverbial “dishwasher”, and not a zero percent loan.
READ ALSO: Response to Tusk’s propaganda. PFR: “We correct incorrect information provided by politicians in the media”
Source: wPolityce