The government designed the changes to provide equal opportunities to co-finance non-profit rents by tenants in non-profit and commercial apartments, Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Irena Majcen said as she presented the changes in late March.

The changes also enable public housing funds to take additional loans to build public apartments.

The two categories of tenants will be equalised, the minister said, adding that the scope of accessibility of commercial apartments to families would remain unchanged.

The changes also allow municipalities to get required data for checking whether an applicant for a non-profit rented apartment meets all conditions determined by law.

The proposal takes into account a 2016 decision of the Constitutional Court establishing that in the fiscal consolidation act, the legislator differently regulated the manner for determining the amount of subsidy for tenants in non-profit and commercial apartments.

"An important part is also the change that allows the municipal and national housing funds to make additional borrowings for building new apartments, which means facilitated construction of such apartments," Majcen said.

Under the proposed changes, the national Housing Fund would be able, in addition to up to 10% of the amount of its assets, to borrow an additional 20% of the amount of its assets without any limitations.

There is also the possibility of municipal housing funds borrowing from the national Housing Fund up to 10% of the amount of their own assets.

The association of housing funds at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) has meanwhile called on the government to raise the basis for the calculation of non-profit rents as part of the changes to the act.

The association argued at a press conference on Wednesday that the current basis does not even suffice for the maintenance of the national Housing Fund.

Head of the public housing fund of the Ljubljana City Municipality Sašo Rink said that for instance, there were ten times more applicants for non-profit apartments in Ljubljana than there were apartments available. This is a consequences of the low rents, he added.