Post by tomis42 on Feb 15, 2024 7:15:09 GMT -5
In normal countries, with normal mayors, the cost of housing is a major electoral and social issue, and politicians are always under pressure to reduce this cost. But the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, has the nerve to present the staggering increase in house prices as a success. This is a success that benefits a very small minority of the population. 18:21 : 11/04/2023 in NEWS , BOLD BLOG , MAIN , POLITICAL Who benefits and who loses from rising house prices? By Gjergj Erebara According to the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, we all seem to have benefited from the staggering increase in the price of apartments in Tirana over the last few years. His argument, said in a television studio, was that if you as a citizen have an apartment, it costs more today than it did five years ago. So theoretically, we are all richer.
In fact, this happens only Germany Phone Number List theoretically. Practically, if you are lucky and have an apartment where you live, you are the same today as you were ten years ago. Ten years ago you could sell the apartment for, say, 50 thousand euros, but you didn't sell it, because otherwise you would be left without a home. Today, you can sell it for 100 thousand euros, but normally you don't sell it, because just like ten years ago, you will be left without a home. In fact this is the normal situation for probably most of the population. But the problem is that there is a very small part, which has zero houses. Lives on rent. Or he has a small house and his children are growing up and he wants to get a slightly bigger house.
Or he has a small house, bought many years ago, after he came from some unlivable province and wants his parents, now elderly, to take them to Tirana. And for that you need an extra room. Or has a small and bad house, (the quality of construction here has never been normal), and wants to have a better house. If you fall into this category of citizens, the situation has become terribly difficult. If the average salary of an Albanian in 2015 was 42,000 lek per month, you could find an apartment at a price of 800 or 1,000 euros per square meter. Your monthly salary was enough to buy 0.4 or 0.5 square meters of house. To buy a house of 70 square meters, you had to work 140-170 months, or 12-14 years.
In fact, this happens only Germany Phone Number List theoretically. Practically, if you are lucky and have an apartment where you live, you are the same today as you were ten years ago. Ten years ago you could sell the apartment for, say, 50 thousand euros, but you didn't sell it, because otherwise you would be left without a home. Today, you can sell it for 100 thousand euros, but normally you don't sell it, because just like ten years ago, you will be left without a home. In fact this is the normal situation for probably most of the population. But the problem is that there is a very small part, which has zero houses. Lives on rent. Or he has a small house and his children are growing up and he wants to get a slightly bigger house.
Or he has a small house, bought many years ago, after he came from some unlivable province and wants his parents, now elderly, to take them to Tirana. And for that you need an extra room. Or has a small and bad house, (the quality of construction here has never been normal), and wants to have a better house. If you fall into this category of citizens, the situation has become terribly difficult. If the average salary of an Albanian in 2015 was 42,000 lek per month, you could find an apartment at a price of 800 or 1,000 euros per square meter. Your monthly salary was enough to buy 0.4 or 0.5 square meters of house. To buy a house of 70 square meters, you had to work 140-170 months, or 12-14 years.