"Social" Goodbye
- 1.06.2025, 16:20
Belarus is changing the rules of housing support.
If someone had an illusion that the state will continue to generously distribute benefits left and right, as in the 2010s, then we have news for you: from June 1, 2025, the number of concerns will be sharply reduced. In Belarus, new decrees on state support, which officials call "universalization," and citizens - "trimming," come into force, writes "Belarusians and the market".
From June 1, Belarus enters a new era - the era of "improvement of approaches." That's how official summaries call what an ordinary person recognizes as: "Aha, something has been cut." Decrees №94 and №95, signed back in the spring, introduce a "unified" approach to government support in the housing sector.
That is, everything at once - loans, subsidies and help with debts - neatly folded into one document. Convenient? Maybe. Generous? Not anymore.
What help is left and who is entitled to it:
Decree No. 95 "On state support for housing construction" leaves three main forms of state support for the construction or purchase of housing:
Favorable loans for the construction of individual houses, apartments in block houses, as well as for the purchase of housing built by state order.
➤ 21 categories of citizens can apply for them.
One-time subsidies - for the construction or purchase of housing.
➤ Provided for 17 categories of citizens.
Financial assistance in repaying the debt on a soft loan -
➤ Available to large families and young families at the birth of children.
Who did not fit in - as they say, let him take off. Loans remained, but with nuances. Yes, according to the documents - everything is the same as before: large, young, needy and other "social" categories seem to be still entitled to them. But in reality, soft loans are more like a mythical artifact: everyone has heard about it, but few have held it in their hands.
But officials now have a convenient methodology: "Well, we have not canceled!". They just somehow... didn't approve it. Or the queue stretched until 2036. Or the house isn't up to code. Or something else, but the new "everything by decree".
And yes, the innovation fits perfectly into the new information wave: instead of "the most social state" now we are gently slipped the idea of "reasonable optimization". The word "optimization" has become a favorite word in general. Especially when it comes not to their benefits, but to ours.
What's next? Most likely, a complete switch of rhetoric awaits us. Instead of the old slogans about supporting large families and affordable housing, they will talk about "responsibility for their future" and "housing maturity". There may even be new forms of motivation: "Didn't get a subsidy? Then you didn't try hard enough!"
If before you could still hope for a "miracle", now you can only rely on your own strength. But the authorities will be able to say with a clear conscience: "The support remains. You're just not the lucky one."