Sustainable Housing Management

This seminar was organized within the framework of a project ‘Sustainable Housing Management in Bulgaria. Improving the Capacity of Homeowners Associations of Multi-family Apartment Buildings’ under MATRA program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project is implemented by foundation Housing+ in collaboration with the Dutch housing associations Woondrecht and de Nieuwe Unie and the Bulgarian Housing Association. The project is coordinated with the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works of Republic of Bulgaria. The working group for Eastern Europe at CECODHAS, an organization uniting the European social housing institutions, helped the organization of the seminar. The working group had its regularly autumn meeting for first time in Sofia on 16 November 2005 immediately before the international seminar.

Condominium apartment buildings represent a big portion from the housing stock in Bulgaria as well as in prevailing part of the new and future members of European Union. During the conference of ministers of housing policy of the countries members of European Union that took place in March 2005 in Prague, Mrs. Sibila Decker, Minister of housing policy in the Netherlands, called for exchange of information and for collaboration between the participating countries for improvement the daily and long term management of housing stock. This seminar responded to this call by facilitating the exchange of experience between the Bulgarian representatives of the local and central authorities, non-governmental organizations, experts and practicians in the field of housing policy and their partners in the new and future countries members of European Union. Experts from social housing institutions in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Great Britain, United States, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Ukrain and Armenia were presented. 

The seminar was the biggest international event in the field of housing policy in Bulgaria for the last years. It was inaugurated on 17 November 2005 in the presence of Mr. Willem van Ee, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Mr. Kalin Rogachev, Vice-minister of the Regional Development and Public Works of Republic of Bulgaria. The topics of plenary sessions and working groups were as follows:

• Legal framework and policy for homeowners associations in condominium multi-story apartment buildings;
• Mechanisms for financing and implementing of projects for renovation of housing buildings; 
• Restructuring of housing estates and improvement of consumer and market value of privately owned housing;

The seminar considered these topics with a view to initiating and financing real projects for renovation of the housing stock in regard to the National Housing Renovation Program in Republic of Bulgaria with the participation of municipalities, homeowners associations and private institutions. The discussion aimed to identify and disseminate the good practices of public-private partnership in the field of the sustainable management of condominium multi-story apartment buildings and their adjacent territories.