Local services
The Municipality of Debrecen launched the Debrecen Panel Programme in 2023 entirely from city budget funds.
Debrecen is today the only city that can devote serious and significant resources to this purpose, Mayor László Papp said on 13 November 2024, when he presented the panel programme’s winning applicants with their certificates of recognition.
He stressed the importance of considering energy efficiency and sustainability aspects in the city’s operations. If the city has the financial resources to support them, it would like to continue supporting the condominiums in the coming years.
The mayor pointed out that the city has earmarked HUF 500 million in 2023 and 2024 for this purpose, and they would like to maintain this in the coming years, planning budgets so that we can continue the prefab programme. He recalled six successful applications last year and this year, twenty-six, twelve of which have already been successful. He stressed that the results show that the call is becoming increasingly successful. In the previous call for proposals, applications were invited for exterior renovation of residential buildings, insulation, window replacement, and lift replacement. Still, this year’s prefabricated programme includes the possibility of lift renovation, considering previous needs. He pointed out that in the case of one of the winning condominiums on Füredi Road, the municipality is contributing 25 percent of the project’s cost, providing HUF 41 million in support to the condominium community.
According to László Papp, this is advantageous from several points of view. On the one hand, it is a kind of cooperation between the city and the residents; on the other hand, it is advantageous from the point of view of the urban image, as a grey prefabricated building is renewed, so the intervention has an urban significance. Of course, it is also significant from the point of view of the building’s operation, as the housing maintenance costs can be reduced thanks to the intervention.
György Korbeák, a local councillor for the housing estate, thanked the city administration for the programme. He said that many people from Újkert had applied and were still applying. He urged the residents to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the prefabricated housing programme so that their environment would be renewed and modernised.
Mihály Riskó, the joint representative of one of the winning prefabricated houses, expressed his pleasure that the application has received much publicity, as he believes that this will encourage other residents to participate in the application and implement the investments in a spirit of awareness. In their case, he said, the renovation resulted from conscious planning, which had already started last year with the preparatory process, the design, the definition of the technical content and the approval.
Source and photo credit: debrecen.hu
