Istog, 30 April 2025
The acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the acting Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, together with the Mayor of the Municipality of Istog, Ilir Ferati, laid the foundation stone of the Affordable and Social Housing Complex.
This complex, which will be spread over an area of 9,120 m², will have a total of 65 apartments, of which 52 will be for affordable housing and 13 for social housing. The duration of the construction works is expected to be three years, while the project value is 4.9 million euros. The complex will have four types of apartments Type A with 53 m²; Type B with 66 m²; Type C with 77 m² and Type D with 87 m².
On the occasion of laying the foundation stone, the Prime Minister said that, since the beginning of the government’s mandate, we had approved the Government Agenda for Affordable and Social Housing, which aims to provide access to decent, affordable and inclusive housing for all citizens based on three fundamental principles: inclusivity, non-segregation and diversity.
“Housing is a fundamental human right”, he said, as he thanked Minister Aliu, Deputy Minister Jeton Raka, Mayor Ferati and all those who contributed to this project and wished successful and speedy work.
Minister Aliu emphasized that in addition to the feasibility studies for social housing and affordable housing, a law amendment has also been made, which has paved the way for this project. Providing details about the project, he said that affordable housing will be combined with social housing. Social housing will be owned and managed by the municipalities. Whereas, in affordable housing, in the end, the owners will be those who have applied and benefited from this program.
The combination of social housing with affordable housing allows us to have diversity within housing complexes. We aim for policies where social housing is also included in new development areas, so that we do not have ghettoization of social cases, as we have had in the past, said Minister Aliu.
He wished that this project would be completed as soon as possible so that young couples, administration workers can benefit from our affordable housing program.
Meanwhile, Mayor Ferati said that he is very happy that the Municipality of Istog is the first to start with this project, which, in addition to being of vital interest to the government, has certainly also been of vital interest to the municipality he leads, considering that there are a considerable number of cases that require the municipality to provide solutions regarding housing.
This project is a co-investment of the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure and the beneficiary municipalities, where the municipalities contribute with the location and the necessary accompanying infrastructure, while the ministry carries out the capital investments, namely the design, supervision and construction.
Beneficiaries of this program are young couples and families consisting of a single parent, based on the following criteria they do not have the housing issue resolved and the age of one of the couples is under the age of thirty-seven (37).
In January 2024, the ministry announced the First Public Call for Municipalities, inviting institutional cooperation within the framework of the program. As a result, 13 municipalities, namely Peja, Podujeva, Gjilan, Istog, Kamenica, Rahovec, Gllogoc, Lipjan, Malisheva, Obiliq, Vushtrri, Shtime and Ferizaj, submitted applications, which were reviewed through analytical assessments and field visits. In March 2024, a Team of Professionals was also established at the ministry to support the project implementation process at the local level.
Among the municipalities that met the criteria for project development, the Municipality of Istog is one of five municipalities, along with Peja, Podujeva, Gjilan and Kamenica, for which conceptual and main projects have been drafted. The projects in these municipalities have been issued with construction conditions, while for three of them, including Istog, Construction Permits have also been issued. So far, four contracts have been signed with economic operators in seven lots in the Municipalities of Istog, Gjilan, Peja and Podujeva, with a total value of 32,257,752.81 euros.
Last modified: April 30, 2025