More than 11 million homes lie empty across Europe. More than 2 million homes are empty in each of France and Italy, 1.8 million in Germany and more than 700,000 in the UK. These figures show that a large share of the housing stock in Europe is not in use. The problem has arisen because policymakers did not develop proper tools to balance long-term supply and demand for housing. The article describes why this problem appeared and provides an answer to the question of what type of incentives policymakers should apply to housing stock management, financing and taxation to achieve a better utilization of the built environment. A housing stock is a form of inventory of a built environment. The value of housing stock represents the major part of inventories in each society. Such stock currently is not managed properly because the management of housing stock does not include the methods for forecasting demand according to the dynamics of age cohorts for different housing needs, preferences and purchasing power. The goal is to develop such tools. Therefore, the actuarial reverse mortgage approach to financing is combined with a graph of a multiple decrements - competing risk approach to achieve better forecasting of supply and demand and to show how tax policies influence the housing market and the inventory of empty homes. The article also shows how taxation of real estate transactions is eating into the housing equity of the elderly when the latter must change their residential property due to decreased functional capacity. Therefore, we conclude that taxation of transactions is not an age-friendly instrument and should be replaced by property taxes that are paid annually. A better taxation policy is also suggested for Spain.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38685445
Research question: This article provides an answer to the question: What kind of housing do the seniors in Slovenia prefer after a substantial decrease of their functional capacities, i.e. when they already need long-term care services? Purpose: During the study, the seniors participating in the study were still able to live in their current dwelling – in the home where they lived for years together with their family or alone; but because of a substantial decrease of their functional capacities they had become aware that it would be difficult to continue to stay there. We wanted to know where they would like to migrate or move to when needed, and what kind of housing should be provided on the housing market for these cohorts. Method: After our study of the relevant European and American literature we found that the construction of housing for seniors can be developed in different types of structures and that there is a substantial gap between the needs and the availability of housing arrangements in Slovenia, which also increases the rigidity of the Slovenian housing market and reduces land rent in comparison with USA and Western Europe. Seniors using long-term care services provided by municipalities in their own homes, living outside the main Slovenian central places, were included in the survey. To identify the preferred structure of the built environment for seniors we organised 3 groups of interviews with assisted living inhabitants from three Slovenian municipalities and evaluated the percentages of each desired type of housing and care. Results: The results show that more than half of Slovenian seniors do not have the possibility to move to retirement villages or other better adapted homes in assisted living housing units, where they could protect their dignity and independence better than in institutional care in nursing homes. Local administration and society: These findings refer to the local administration initiative to (a) built proper housing units for seniors with decreasing functional capacities themselves, or (b) to initiate investments in local areas that would, in turn, attract private investments in proper and affordable housing for seniors. Novelty: This study is the first of its kind in Slovenia while its results provide better insight into what matters most to Slovenian seniors regarding their housing arrangements. Further extension: The study could give different results in the case of metropolitan areas, e.g. for the case of Ljubljana.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2048309762
In accordance with the "Operational Programme for the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy for the period 2014-2020", as a key area Slovenia identified Promoting the availability of affordable, sustainable and high-quality services, including health and social services of general interest also for old and very old inhabitants. These services include the long-term care. The key issue which until now has not been answered is how to develop a quantitative model for measuring the quality of social care services for the elderly, and how to plan the facilities for needs of seniors which will be available in accordance with the demand. As stated in the Operational Programme, Slovenia does not have a compact system for regulation of long-term care. Services and rights are arising from the different existing systems - health, pension and disability insurance as well as from the social welfare system. Given the demographic structure and projections developed by European Commission and presented in The Ageing Report 2015, there is a need for reform that will enable the establishment of a uniform system of high-quality community-based services for ageing in place and for those that will need institution forms of care. Slovenia is preparing new legislation in the field of long-term care (LTC), which will have to take into consideration also a different type of facilities where LTC services will be provided. This will require the development of model for projections of needs and eligibility for integrated health and social services, LTC, monitoring of recipients of services and funds for LTC, and coordinating the development of integrated community-based services, as required in Operational Programme for the implementation of the European cohesion policy for the period 2014-2020 (European Commission, 2014). In the paper, we shall develop a model for measuring the quality of the system of LTC, for which even the OECD documents state that has not yet been developed and show how the optimal policy requires the dynamics of providing facilities for seniors. A more objective measuring instrument, based on an actuarial - mathematical methods will be presented. Thus, the objective of the paper is to present how to develop an actuarial model for determining the quality of care in different types of facilities in the system of LTC. The paper will also present the proposal for the model of collecting and processing data in the system of statistical research relevant for the whole country, to better forecast the long-term needs of facilities for seniors with declining functional capacities.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38819077