Summary

Housing is a key factor in people's quality of life and well-being. It is a place where individuals express their identity, privacy and security. Access to adequate housing is therefore a fundamental human right for a decent life, as underlined by the Resolution on the National Housing Programme 2015-2025. However, Slovenia is facing a shortage of rental housing, especially public housing, despite an excess of housing over the number of households, especially in the most desirable locations. Housing policy is therefore increasingly focused on increasing public rental housing. The provision of developable land for public housing is therefore crucial and can be facilitated by circular space management measures. The concept of circular land management is emerging as a central guiding principle for all spatial activities, including spatial planning, land policy measures and construction. The introduction of this concept makes better use of existing urban areas and reduces the need to develop new land. In the context of circular space management, redevelopment of degraded areas is promoted, and new land-use interventions give priority to the internal development of settlements in under-utilised areas over interventions on undeveloped building land. In addition to the redevelopment of degraded areas, public rental housing can also be provided through the reuse of existing building stock - vacant dwellings - following the principles of circular space management. Circular space management measures can therefore reduce the pressure on space from public housing construction. However, in order to achieve all this, it is first necessary to establish a common national inventory of suitable publicly owned land and property, which would enable efficient planning and implementation of public housing construction, as there is no such inventory in Slovenia yet. The aim of the research project is therefore to register suitable publicly owned land and real estate for public housing construction, to prepare a comprehensive inventory, to analyse the suitability of the land, to establish records of suitable land, and to prepare an expert basis for a long-term plan for public housing construction.

Partners in the project

Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

• dr. Igor Bizjak, leader
• prof. dr. Boštjan Kerbler, coordinator
• Robi Koščak
• dr. Liljana Jankovič Grobelšek
• Simon Koblar
• Boštjan Cotič

Geodetic institute of Slovenia

• Barbara Černič
• Dominik Fajdiga
• Ajda Kafol Stojanović
• dr. Peter Lamovec
• mag. Edvard Mivšek
• mag. Roman Rener

Project phases

Work Package 1: Review and Development of Criteria for Public Housing Location. This work package focuses on examining existing programs, projects and studies related to public housing construction, and analyzing data to identify publicly owned real estate suitable for public rental housing. It includes defining criteria for land and building suitability, reviewing existing data sources, and developing a plan for developing a register of suitable real estate. The key outputs are a developed set of criteria, an analysis of data sources, and a real estate register plan that will be used in subsequent phases of the project.

Work package 2: Baselines for a long-term plan for the placement of public housing. In this work package, data on publicly owned real estate is obtained on a test basis and supplemented with key information on the possibilities of their activation for public rental housing. Based on this data and the criteria from the first work package, expert baselines for a long-term plan for the placement of public housing by region and municipality are prepared. The key result is a spatial layer of suitable land and buildings with descriptions and an expert basis for further planning of public housing.

Work Package 3: Recommendations and Dissemination. This work package includes the dissemination of the project results and the preparation of final recommendations for the client. The results will be presented to the professional and scientific public through meetings and publications, while reporting to the client will be carried out with an emphasis on the professional starting points for the long-term plan for public housing construction. Recommendations for further activities and possible future tasks in this area will also be provided.

Results and publications

Kerbler, B., Bizjak, I., Koščak, R., Koblar, S., Jankovič Grobelšek, L., Cotič, B., Kolar, T., Rožman, A., Živković, F., Lamovec, P., Černič, B., Fajdiga, D., Kuk, K., Rener, R., and Mivšek, E. (2025): Primernost in potencial zemljišč za javno stanovanjsko gradnjo [Suitability and Potential of Land for Public Housing Construction]. Final Report of the Research Project under the Target Research Programme (CRP 2024). Ljubljana, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Geodetic Institute of Slovenia. To access the report click here. [COBISS.SI-ID in press] (in Slovenian)

Kerbler, B., Bizjak, I., Koščak, R., Koblar, S., Jankovič Grobelšek, L., Cotič, B., Kolar, T., Rožman, A., Živković, F., Lamovec, P., Černič, B., Fajdiga, D., Kuk, K., Rener, R., and Mivšek, E. (2025): Priročnik za ugotavljanje primernosti in potenciala zemljišč za javno stanovanjsko gradnjo [Manual for Assessing the Suitability and Potential of Land for Public Housing Construction]. Ljubljana, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Geodetic Institute of Slovenia. To access the manual click here.  [COBISS.SI-ID in press] (in Slovenian)

Bizjak, I., Kerbler, B., Koblar, S., Jankovič Grobelšek, L., Cotič, B., Koščak, R., Kern, O., Lamovec, P., Černič, B., Fajdiga, D., Kuk, K., Rener, R., and Mivšek, E. (2025): Primernost in potencial zemljišč za javno stanovanjsko gradnjo [Suitability and Potential of Land for Public Housing Construction]. Interim Report of the Research Project under the Target Research Programme (CRP 2024). Ljubljana, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Geodetic Institute of Slovenia. To access the report click here and the appendix here. [COBISS.SI-ID 232156163] (in Slovenian)

Kerbler, B. (2025): Ali res potrebujemo 20.000 novih javnih najemnih stanovanj [Do We Really Need 20,000 New Public Rental Dwellings]. Urbani izziv, 20, pp. 133–137. To access the article click here. [COBISS.SI-ID 241924099] (in Slovenian)

Bizjak, I. (2025): Primernost in potencial zemljišč za javno stanovanjsko gradnjo. Urbani izziv, 20, pp. 140–144. To access the article click here.  [COBISS.SI-ID in press] (in Slovenian)