Home grant awarded to 337 large families
25.11.2019
This year, 337 families raising three or more children received a home grant from KredEx—there are 1192 children growing up in these families altogether. The total sum of the grants allocated this year was over EUR 3.1 million. From next year, families will be able to apply for more grants than before.
This year, grants were awarded in a sum of up to EUR 8,000, with up to EUR 5,000 in repeated applications. This year, the average grant amount was EUR 7252. Upon the proposal of the assessment committee, a bigger grant amount may also be allocated to families, whose living conditions need substantial improvement. This year, there were 6 such grants, the biggest of which amounted to the maximum EUR 14 000. The largest number of recipients live in Ida-Viru County (57), Harju County (43) and Tartu County (31).
Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas signed a regulation this week that will continue the grant for the acquisition of homes for families with many children in the new year on a larger scale. “For more than a decade now, the state has been supporting families, and by Christmas this year, more than three hundred families will receive state-sponsored gifts as well. The state wants to create better living conditions for families with many children, and in the new year there is an opportunity to get even more support,“ Aas noted.
The maximum amount of the grant shall be EUR 10 000 per applicant from the new year, and it can be applied for twice. If the family has received support once, the highest amount for the second time is still EUR 5,000, unless there are at least five children in the family. In this case, the grant for the second time will be up to EUR 10 000. If the living conditions of the applicant are very poor, it is even possible to raise the limit up to EUR 18 000.
In the families that received the grant this year, the average monthly taxable income per household member was EUR 152 in 2018. There were also 27 families whose taxable income per household member was EUR 0 in the previous year. The biggest families have 9 and 7 children, and 11 of the families that received the grant have 6 children. There were also 26 families with five children, 87 with four children and 211 families with three children among the grant recipients.
According to Triin Reinsalu, head of KredEx's Department of Housing and Energy Efficiency, the home grant simultaneously addresses several important concerns. “Allocation of the grant has shown that the heat retention of many homes, the internal climate and, often, the sanitary conditions, do not meet the basic requirements and particularly affect children's health and well-being, among other things. KredEx home grant will make it possible to create better living conditions for families with children, while also helping to increase the energy efficiency of our buildings. As goals, both are undoubtedly important, as Estonia still spends an unreasonable amount of energy on heating buildings,” Reinsalu reasoned.
Most support is granted for renovation, building or reconstruction of housing (213 cases). 124 families were awarded grants for purchasing a home.
It is a non-refundable state grant intended for the improvement and modernisation of the living conditions of large families. Applications may be submitted by families with at least three children aged up to 19 years old, in which the taxable income per household member for the previous year did not exceed EUR 355 per month.
The condition of the applicants’ housing was assessed by a committee including representatives of KredEx, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Estonian Association of Large Families.