Astana, 30 October. Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court has ruled that housing payments to law enforcement officers for buying a home are granted once, rejecting a police officer who sought to have them reassigned for a new mortgage, Kazinform reports.
The applicant bought a one-room flat with a mortgage using housing payments; once he had fully repaid the loan, the payments stopped. Later he took a mortgage on a two-room flat but was refused repeat payments, and courts of two instances upheld the refusal. He argued that the ban violated constitutional guarantees of housing and equality before the law.
The Constitutional Court explained that the payments come from the budget in place of service housing and may be used to buy a home, and that the law provides for one-time use of this right. After the loan was repaid the payments were terminated rather than suspended, and the law does not provide for resuming them for a repeat purchase in the same locality. The applicant retains the right to service housing according to family size or to rent payments if transferred to another region.
What it means: The state helps a law enforcer buy a home once; improving one’s housing at the budget’s expense a second time in the same city is not allowed.
Who benefits: The budget gains limited spending on housing support. Officers who have not yet used the right gain clarity: payments are best put towards suitable housing straight away.
Background: Housing payments are received by officers of the police, anti-corruption service, financial monitoring and other law enforcement bodies who have no housing where they serve. Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court has operated since 2023; citizens can apply to it directly.
