engleski

The role of housing subsidies within the Croatian economic growth strategy: a political economy approach to SSK

Since 2017, Croatia has been providing a new housing subsidy programme covering up to 50% of a monthly loan annuity for the first four years of a mortgage up to 100.000 EUR. Although the subsidy is not limited to first-time buyers, the target group is those under 45. Recent economic evidence points to this policy having increased housing prices while being ineffective at raising the homeownership rate. This paper uses a political economy lens to contextualise this subsidy within contemporary changes in the Croatian housing system and, more broadly, social policy. Our objective is to mobilise evidence from economics, sociology, and political science to address the role of housing in the reformulation of social policy in the Croatian transition. We ask the question: How does this subsidy position the Croatian housing system within the national growth strategy and social policy provision? We argue that this policy reinforces a shift towards financialised growth and pursues the privatization of the welfare state through familist and middle households capturing of public funds. Our research draws from semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders: civil servants, private financiers, and politicians ; secondary data from European and national sources ; and critical analysis of parliamentary minutes and policy documents. Finally, we distinguish this subsidy as a new stage in the restructuring of housing policy toward ‘selected investment’ along income and household composition lines.

Housing policy ; post-socialist transition ; social policy ; growth regime ; welfare state

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