On December 26, Minsk /Ekaterina Markovich - BELTA/. The social focus of Belarus's housing policy will be strengthened. This opinion was expressed by the Minister of Architecture and Construction, Anatoly Nichkasov, in an interview with "Economy of Belarus" magazine, BELTA reports. "It seems to me that the social focus of the country's housing policy will be strengthened, and state support will become more targeted and transparent. In addition, changes already adopted in the country create conditions for every citizen to freely resolve their housing issue," the minister noted. According to Anatoly Nichkasov, at the beginning of the last five-year period, only 30-40% of housing with state support was built in Minsk and in a number of cities, with the rest being built on a commercial basis. "However, by now the situation has become the opposite: 60% of apartments are being built with state support, and in some cities and regions this figure reaches 80%. It turns out that the more so-called social housing we build, the faster the queue of those in need of improved housing conditions with state support increases," he explained. Monitoring the situation with the processing of queues has shown that it is necessary to revise the groundlessly expanded norms for providing state support, the minister emphasized. "Therefore, a decision was made to revise the criteria for classifying citizens as needy and to determine who is genuinely entitled to preferential loans. In this regard, the ratio of housing construction volumes in the country as a whole will change somewhat - along with social housing, commercial, rental, and individual low-rise housing will be built more actively. That is, citizens who are truly in need will be able to resolve their housing issue faster in accordance with their needs and incomes, and this is the principle of fairness," Anatoly Nichkasov noted, emphasizing that assistance to large families will remain a priority. Another area that, according to the minister, will be developed is construction for urban residents, but in the suburban areas of large cities and the capital. "However, for a person to want to live there, it is necessary to create attractive conditions: houses in satellite cities should have economical operational characteristics, be energy-efficient, and affordable in terms of construction costs, in order to reduce the expenses of owners not only for construction but also for utility payments," believes the head of the department.