The document allows transferring such housing into ownership free of charge to the people who have been in military service for 25 calendar years. Those who have been in military service for 20 calendar years will be able to buy out this property in installments up to 15 years.
The decree also provides for additional social and legal guarantees for military personnel and their family members. For example, retired military personnel with 20 calendar years of military service, who do not want to purchase the rental housing they live in, will have the right to live there until they improve their living conditions. Family members of the military who died on duty will get the rental housing into ownership free of charge, regardless of the length of service. Family members of the military who died for other reasons during the period of military service will be able to use rental housing on the same terms until they improve their living conditions.
The decree applies to military personnel and persons equal to them serving in the Defense Ministry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Emergencies Ministry, the KGB, the State Border Committee, the Security Service of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the Operations and Analysis Center under the President of the Republic of Belarus, the State Control Committee, the central offices of the Investigative Committee and the State Forensic Examination Committee, as well as organizations included in the list of state bodies or bodies subordinate to them.
The decree comes into force three months after its official publication.
As BelTA reported earlier, this matter had been discussed at a meeting hosted by the Belarusian head of state on 6 December 2022.
“Provision of housing for state employees and especially people who defend Belarus, especially now, will always be a priority of the state housing policy. I have repeatedly emphasized that people with many children and people in uniform are our priorities, even super-priorities,” the Belarusian leader said.
At present, almost 33,000 people in uniform are on the waiting list for subsidized housing in Belarus.
Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak told reporters after the December meeting that the volume of rental housing construction was to be increased before the decree would be formalized: “We need to build housing first. In fact, this work has already been started. The rental housing for the military is already featured in our rental housing construction plans. An estimated demand for housing for uniformed personnel is 700,000 square meters.”
The government plans to build the necessary amount of housing throughout 2023 and the first half of 2024. The plans are impressive, because over the past few years, the construction volume of rental housing for military personnel has been many times less.
“We think that the number of people who will apply for rental housing when they see the decree will increase. But today it is 9,830 people – this number includes those people who have applied for rental housing from all the eligible departments,” Anatoly Sivak said.
Written by belta.by
