Inequality, the number of homeless families has increased by 87% in Albania

The number of Albanians who do not own a home has increased dramatically in Albania during the last decade, an indicator of abusive policies in the construction sector and the dramatic dimensions of inequality.

The 2023 Census data show that nearly 132,000 families, or nearly one in every six families, live on rent or live in an apartment owned by someone else with an agreement with the owner.

The 2011 Census data showed that there were a total of 71 thousand families in this category. Over the past twelve years, the number of households without property has increased by 87%.

To date, INSTAT has published only general Census data, which includes population data at the municipality level as well as housing data at the national level. Data on housing at the county or municipality level is not yet available, so it is not possible to know for sure in which areas there are empty housing and in which areas there are families that do not own housing.

If we compare the number of empty apartments with the number of families without home ownership, then we can say that there are 2.5 empty apartments for every family without an apartment.

INSTAT has counted a total of nearly 1.08 million apartments and 756 thousand families. Simple arithmetic shows that 327 thousand apartments or 33% of the total are unoccupied. But the accounts at the national level are not very expressive in this regard because the population of Albania has moved massively from the countryside to the city and, although at the national level there are plenty of empty houses, it is not possible to know at present how many of these there are dwellings of the population displaced from the countryside to the city and how many are empty dwellings in urban areas.

However, if it is seen that all municipalities, including the Municipality of Tirana, have an emigration rate that varies from 30% to 70%, then it can be assumed that uninhabited dwellings are found everywhere in the territory of the country, both in the city and in the countryside. The Municipality of Tirana itself, which has seen an increase in population, still has a difference of 33% between the population registered in the Civil Registry and the population counted by the Census.

The number of vacant apartments is likely to increase significantly over the coming years if the multitude of buildings currently under construction are completed. During the last five years, construction permits have been granted for a total residential area of ​​8.7 million square meters. The construction boom is actually concentrated only in Tirana, where most of the construction permits have been granted.

INSTAT asked Censi interviewees if they owned the apartment or not and if not, with what agreement they lived. At the national level, 82.5% of 756,000 families owned their home. A decade ago, in the 2011 Census, 89 percent of households owned their home.

The families that do not own the apartment are divided into two categories: in the first are the families that live on rent and these are 67 thousand. In the second category are families who live rent-free in apartments provided for use by the owners. These are 65 thousand.

Both categories have experienced dramatic growth compared to 2011.

At that time, there were 41,000 families with rent, while there were 30,000 families without property and without rent.

Censi also revealed that, in 2023, 29,000 families still do not have a bathroom inside their home, while 103,000 families do not have running water./Reporter.al