After it gained independence in 1991, the Republic of Croatia went through the Homeland War which caused not only the destruction of approximately 590 estates or 160 000 housing units but also the slowing down of economic activities, the slow postwar economic recovery and a smaller number of residential building projects. A chronic shortage of residences in big cities before the war was only aggravated by the migration of people from the war areas. The first organized housing scheme in the post-war period was the Homeland War Victims Housing Scheme launched in 1996 with the goal of providing housing for a growing number of people. The rest of the citizens were not included in the scheme and were left to the free housing market where the property demands and prices of housing units were on the rise. In the late 1990s, the Croatian government initiated the formation of the Social Housing Construction Scheme. It was supported by the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb with the goal of meeting housing requirements, improving the housing quality for a great number of people, and advancing architectural practice. The implementation of the scheme commenced in late 2001, and the main characteristics were its largescale and multi-level application. The experiences gained in the implementation of the Homeland War Victims Housing Scheme were used for this new government-backed project. Certain corrections made in the scheme included the sections related to the prescribed organisation parameters, housing standards and implementation conditions and possibilities. Efforts were also made in the area of construction in that the required number of housing units were to be built all over the country in a relatively short period of time and with an additional task of protecting the space from unplanned building. The Ministry of Construction and the Agency for Mediation and Transactions of Specific Real Estate Property were in charge of the implementation of the scheme. Additional provisions were made for the establishment of non-profit organisations on the local level which was an opportunity seized by the cities of Varazdin, Rijeka, Koprivnica and Dubrovnik. The obligation of the local government was to ensure a lot and public utilities, while the national government was to take care of the construction in the amount of 25% of the standard construction costs, from design, building, and supervision to value added tax. The costs of land development and public utilities were not included in the standard costs and could amount to maximum 40% of the standard cost of the apartment's usable surface area. The prescribed maximum price for apartments was 1.125,66 €/m.sup.2 of its usable surface area. From 2004 the public funding was to stimulate construction and reconstruction of apartment buildings and family houses which provide private people new housing according to the prescribed standard by covering 25% of the standard building cost. The scheme also includes the defined needs and project programme, and the Regulations on the Minimum Technical Requirements for Design and Construction of Apartments in the Social Housing Construction Scheme. The regulations are the only valid document which prescribed and structured all the elements of the apartments. That is why its application became habitual in housing projects even outside the framework of this scheme. Review of the project documentation was conducted by professional architectural reviewers from the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb. A significant number of housing units was build during the first year of the scheme's implementation, whereas the building activities in later periods somewhat subsided. The period 2011-2011 saw the construction of 5533 housing units in 173 solely residential and residential and commercial buildings, and in one complex of single-storey and twostorey row houses in Durdevac. The architectural design competitions held in the beginning of the scheme's implementation for residential buildings and estates enabled both prominent and young, unknown architects to see the execution of their designs. The competitions held as part of the scheme resulted in the construction of the Spansko --Oranice and Novi Jelkovec estates in Zagreb and a large number of individual buildings. After 2004, architectural design competitions were abandoned in favour of public procurement. The only exception was the competition for the Sopnica jug estate in Zagreb whose design has never been executed. The residential buildings within the Social Housing Construction Scheme were all constructed according to the Regulations, which resulted with a wide range of buildings of exceptional quality. Among numerous realized projects envisaged by the scheme there are several of those which stand out by their successful integration in the surrounding space in terms of architectural treatment of forms and facades (residential buildings Krapina, Krapinske Toplice, Delnice); those which are creatively designed (buildings in Dakovo, S4 in Zagreb's Spansko estate and in Vrgorac), and those which feature skilfully organized communal spaces and housing units (buildings in Krapina, B1 in Zadar and Rovinj). With their number and quality, the residential buildings within the scheme most certainly left a mark on Croatian architecture in the early 21st century, which is attested by a number of Croatian and international awards and commendations given to their architects for the buildings in Dakovo, Krapinske Toplice, Cres, Rovinj, Sambor, Delnice and Vrgorac. The research results suggest the necessity of the following activities: holding architectural and urban design competitions for residential buildings whose construction is publicly financed, recommending adequate types of housing, revising certain sections of the Regulations and establishing the ratio between the value of construction and the value of lots in relation to one m.sup.2 of the newly built apartments in big cities. The Social Housing Construction Scheme provided a successful model which has gone through numerous corrections in relation to laws and the relationship of the location communities, and the possibilities of potential users of such a form of housing. With careful attention of people's real needs and with certain revisions, the scheme achieved its goal and provided better and more accessible housing to Croatian citizens.