10 minutes with Tamás Farkas, Director of LOSZ
Meet the faces behind housing providers across Europe
Budapest, 23 August 2016 | Social, Urban, Economy, Energy
Every month we introduce you to one of the people leading the work of our member organisations. In this edition, we fly to the Hungarian capital, Budapest to meet Tamás Farkas the Director of our member, LOSZ. Tamás introduces the organisation, gives us information about the perception of housing in the country and shares some thoughts about the current challenges at national and regional level. Plus, as usual, he presents his own way to strike a good life-work balance.
LOSZ ID
- I would describe LOSZ in 10 words as a unque federation because our Members live in their own houses and the federation works for the improvement of their living conditions by advocating for better legislation.
- Our key objective is to influence the legal framework that affects the activities of our Members. Additionally, we provide our Members with updated information and training.
- Apart from housing provision, our mission is to ensure the continous energy modernization and the optimization of the overall condition of the residential buildings that belong to our Members.
- We joined Housing Europe more than 20 years ago to learn about the European policy system related to housing, gain experience and work together with our colleagues from other Member States for the realization of a common European legal framework.
In Hungary
- Housing is considered to be in Hungary a complicated sector. The condominia, the apartments managed by housing associations together represent 10 % of the housing stock. The country is caracterized by low supply of social housing and high housing ownership and this is a key element of our adovcacy activities.
- Our key partners in the country are the respective Ministry, regional federations, local governments and NGOs working in the real estate field.
- Our main housing policy priorities at the moment are the increase of social rental stock and its inclusion into a housing co-operative framework; as well as more efficient management of maintenance and modernization tasks in our residential buildings.
- The major challenge for the country today is that our buildings fall behind regarding their energy modernization. This is an important issue to be tackled. Also, we need to fight for the improvement of our Members’ income situation. Today in Hungary there is no housing shortage, but in some developed regions the composition of the housing stock is problematic, therefore the mobility remains very limited.
In person
- I start my working day in my office but very often I visit our regional representations and local governments.
- After leaving the office I spend my free time ususally at home but I like going to the cinema, to the theatre and when I have the chance I am happy to take a bicyle ride.
- Currently I am reading about politics and learn political journalism and I am trying to prepare for the creation of a new kind of lobbying organization.
- I move around by bike when I have the chance.
- I prefer having on my table a cappuccino and a newspaper.
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