The government's decisions on the budget show that the collapse of housing construction has been taken seriously, says Aleksi Randell, CEO of Rakennusteollisuus RT. The government made decisions on many methods proposed by the industry to improve the cyclical situation in construction. However, a large part of the government's actions still require further preparation, and final decisions will not be made until later this year.
The government aims to promote both the availability of housing on market terms and state-supported housing production in order to smooth out the cyclical crisis in the construction industry. The purpose is, among other things, to quickly increase the maximum amount of the ASP interest subsidy loan for first-time home buyers, to develop the conditions of the short interest subsidy model to be even more encouraging, to postpone Ara production cuts and to speed up Ara's processing processes. Minister Kai Mykkänen according to the state-supported production would rise 50 percent higher than last year.
"The housing policies are in the right direction, and the government has clearly taken into account the exceptional situation in the construction industry. Now, it is essential that the measures be concretized quickly and begin to have an effect at the beginning of next year. The possibility of removing or reducing the property transfer tax on housing transactions should also be investigated quickly", CEO of Rakennusteollisuus RT Aleksi Randell toteaa.
RT praises the government for the investments made in the transport infrastructure. The initial decisions made during the budget frenzy are encouraging and will contribute to softening the steepness of the cyclical decline in construction.
RT proposed to the government to speed up renovation construction as one quick and effective way to promote employment in the construction industry. However, in the budget frenzy, no decisions were made that would have given much-needed impetus to the renovation construction.
"The government's lack of speeding up repair construction is a big disappointment for industry operators. Promoting repair construction would be an effective way to improve employment in the sector, especially in the SME sector. We expect the government to look again at the possibility of supporting households and housing associations in order to get renovation projects started," says Randell.
"It is clear that balancing the state finances is at the top of the government's priority list, and we support those efforts as well. For further preparation, we would like to remind the government of how excellent the cost-benefit ratio of the state's support measures is also in terms of the state economy. For example, each euro invested in housing construction returns approximately 46 percent back to society in taxes and tax-related payments, and an investment of one million euros in construction provides work for 11–14 builders for a year. "Without effective measures, unemployment costs will only increase, and the housing market will sell "eioto", when new apartments will not be completed in a couple of years," says Randell.
For more information:
Aleksi Randell
tel. 0400 500 822
Annex:
RT's proposals for measures to improve the economic situation