The public loan will be made available to residents for works and space improvements in multi-apartment residential houses, including homes located in less developed regions, small towns or villages, or those which, for other reasons, do not comply with commercial banks' lending policy.
The total financing of the aid programme for lending and covering losses is EUR 31 million. It is planned that residents will be able to start submitting applications for aid within the next two months, the Ministry of Economy (EM) said at the government meeting.
The loan will be granted for the implementation of the following measures in an apartment house:
- performance of works in enclosing structures of multi-apartment houses, such as outer walls and windows, and shared spaces, including upgrading or replacing elevators;
- refurbishment, conversion or construction of all types of engineering systems;
- improvement of the territory;
- energy efficiency improvement programs for multi-apartment houses for the financing of ineligible costs;
- project management and construction surveillance.
The maximum amount of the loan per multi-apartment house is EUR 400 000, while not exceeding EUR 120 per square metre of the total area of a multi-apartment house.
Apartment owners may receive several loans, provided that the balance of the amount of a new loan and the loans granted within the scope of these Regulations does not exceed the specified total amount of the loan and the limit per square meter of the total area of a multi-apartment house, said EM. The maximum loan amount per homeowner is EUR 3 million.
An application for loans will have to be submitted to apartment owners through the authorized person or to the homeowner. The loan will be issued by the State finance institution Altum. The closing date for the decision making on the granting of the loan and the conclusion of the loan agreement shall be 31 December 2023.
The loan shall have a maximum maturity of 20 years. The interest rate on the Altum loan is scheduled to start at 3.5% a year. Altum will assess the amount of funding needed to implement the project, the collateral, the existing and future financial situation of the homeowner, the possibilities for repaying the loan, as well as risks and other factors.
The Latvian multi-apartment residential housing consists of 38 600 buildings with a total area of 54,4 million square meters, most of which have been constructed before 1993. According to experts, 70% of the Latvian building sector, which would be around 27,000 multi-apartment houses, with a total area of 38 million square metres, can be restored in a cost-effective way.
