Servicemen must be provided with a possibility of buying out rental housing, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting to discuss housing for the military and persons with the similar status, BelTA has learned.
Currently, more than 33,000 people in uniforms are on the waiting list for better housing. As the president noted, the government proposes to solve the housing issue primarily by providing rental apartments. "The availability of rental housing not only stimulates the extension of contracts, but also provides an opportunity for the rotation of personnel," the head of state said. “The military often move around as they are assigned a new place of service. We have set decreasing coefficients on fees for rented housing. This practice should be continued. This is the right thing to do. People should be confident about their future."
The head of state instructed to consider, at the legislative level, a possibility of buying out rental housing into ownership, clearly spelling out the terms. "When a persons serves in the military, he is entitled to a rental apartment. After having served the required number of years, say, 25 years (retires or leaves service for some other objective reasons), a serviceman should have a chance to get this apartment for free, or upon paying 3% or the residual value? I think we need to take some radical steps," the Belarusian leader said.
He noted that military service is fraught with a risk to life. A person who chooses this profession should be sure that if something happens to him, his children, wife, family, parents will have a roof over their heads. "It is a disgrace when a military man, who has dedicated his life to the country, is not sure about his future and searches for a place to live," the president warned. "Military personnel should know that they will be provided with housing after they retire." At the same time, the president noted that when solving the housing issue at the expense of the budget, it is necessary to proceed from the economic capabilities of the state.
Along with the construction of new rental houses, the meeting discussed other areas to improve the situation with the provision of housing for military personnel.