What housing we have

A flat in a block built in 1920–45 has 99.8 m² at the 90th percentile. In blocks from 1946–59 that is 78.4 m², in 1960–85 72.5 m², then again 83.9 (1986–2005) and 93.5 m² (2006–26). The median moves less: 57.5, 57.1, 51.8, 53.1 and 59.4 m². What disappeared is the large flat; the typical one shrank by a few square metres.

Choose a town in the view below. In 14 of the study's 16 towns the 1960–85 90th percentile is below the pre-war one, and in every one it sits between 62 and 78 m² in those years. When a cause acts the same in Koper and in Hrastnik, the cause is the system, not local demand: floor-area norms in a system funded by a contribution on wages and allocated by points.

The median house grew from 80.3 m² (1920–45) to 83.2 (1946–59), 95.6 (1960–85) and 127.9 m² (2006–26). In all 16 of the study's towns the 1960–85 median is above the 1946–59 one. Switch the view above to houses: the same decades that shrank the blocks made private self-building the other channel.

In the 1960s about 6,030 block flats went up a year, in 1970–85 7,374, and in 1986–95 only 2,783. The post-war cohorts (born 1947–57, 31,762 a year, against 24,654 in the 1930s) turned 25 in 1972–82, when building peaked (correlation 0.65 over 1970–85).

But the boomers explain neither the start nor the end. Building began earlier, with the move from village to town: the population was 1,580,540 in 1960 and 1,996,380 in 1990. There were 458,853 households in 1961 and 632,278 in 1991, because households shrank (3.47 → 3.06 people). The end is the financing collapse of the 1980s, not demography.

481,718 people born 1946–64 live in Slovenia today, against 496,666 of generation X (1965–80). The largest birth year alive is 1979. The boomers were 42% of adults in 1983, are 27% today and will be 17% in 2040. What rises is not one generation but age itself.

In 100 m cells dominated by 1960–85 blocks, 24.6% of residents are 65 or older, against 12.6% in cells of post-1995 blocks and 28.3% in cells of 1960–85 houses (all cells: 21.6%). The blocks' age profile bulges at 65–74: the generation that moved in. A resident of a socialist block has 28.3 m², one of a new block 39.7 m².

Privatisation happened in one decade: the share of dwellings in private ownership was 70% in 1991, 89% in 2002 and 95% in 2021. Today 86% of people over 65 live in a home owned without a mortgage, against 41% of those aged 25–34.

In the other former socialist countries the young own outright more often: 42% of 25–34-year-olds in Slovenia, about four in five in Serbia and Croatia. 39.9% of 25–34-year-olds live with their parents (EU 30.1%); they leave home at 28.8 (EU 26.3).

Households headed by 55–74-year-olds are 41.6% of households and hold 47.6% of net wealth: about their share. It is the young who are missing: households under 35 are only 8.8%, hold 3.2% of wealth, at a median of €12.3k (euro area 21.7). The median household aged 65–74 holds 11 times as much.

Price against wage has not moved much nationally. A new social-sector flat in a town cost on average 1.63 average monthly net wages per m² in 1984–88; today the median comparable flat costs 1.61. In Ljubljana it is 2.65 (3.11 of a young person's wage), against 1.38 in Moste in 1979.

What differed was the channel. A large share of flats was allocated, the rent took about six per cent of a wage, inflation melted the debts, and in 1991 tenants bought their flats for a fraction of their value. Today a 25–34-year-old saving a fifth of their wage needs 9.2 years for a 20% deposit (6.7 in 2015), and 14.3 in Ljubljana.

92,566 flats built 1960–85 are in 5–7-storey blocks without a lift. 1.5% of such flats in five-storey blocks have one, against 77% of new ones. The socialist norm gave lifts to towers, not to the mid-rise blocks.

About 31,700 people aged 65 or older live on the second floor or above of such blocks. That is an order of magnitude, not a count: the grid does not say who lives on which floor.

At the 2021 census nobody was registered in 19.2% of dwellings (165,576). In Kostel it is 52%, in Ljubljana 18%. An unregistered dwelling is a second home, an empty one, or one lived in by someone not registered there; no register tells them apart.

Already more homes lose their last resident aged 65 or over each year than are built: about 5,815 in 2025 against 5,087 dwellings completed, about 8,879 in 2040, 116,104 over 2025–2040. Whether they reach the market, no series here says: first-order inheritance is untaxed and recorded in no register loaded.