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Social Housing in Transition Countries
Abstract
The book intends to fill the gap in the range of publications of post-transitional social housing policy developments in Central and Eastern Europe, delivering a critical evaluation of the developments in selected countries’ social housing sectors.
The first part of the book provides a conceptual framework for understanding the process of transition, with particular emphasis on the question of convergence and divergence within the region. The second part focuses on housing policy issues such as privatization, housing finance and management, rent regulation, and the situation of the Roma, which have had a major effect on the development of the development of the housing system. The case studies making up the third part of the book focus on the specific aspect of social housing that was most relevant to each country. Twelve countries were included in the comparison: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Ukraine. The authors of case studies are housing researchers and/or practitioners from the respective countries with detailed local knowledge in the field of social housing and housing in general. The case studies therefore provide up-to-date data on housing issues and social housing. The final part summarizes the current problems facing the social housing systems in the region.
The entire book concludes that social housing policy developments are still trapped by the legacy of privatization, the paradox of decentralization, and the informal economy, all of which lead to inefficient allocation practices. The systems remain without an adequate response to basic social housing needs and are continuously destabilized by general economic and fiscal policy changes in the broader European context.
... However, the costs of this long-term policy stability may be high: familialism may preserve existing housing inequalities, passed on within family across generations, and it may stigmatise those who are outside the within-family transfer chains, leaving them without any effective public help. It may create a strong insider-outsider divide, but because the insiders largely outweigh the outsiders in number, it may be difficult to find a political support for implementation of any social housing programme to tackle the specific housing situation of vulnerable households -this fact has been confirmed, for example, for post-socialist superhomeownership countries by Hegedüs et al. (2013). The stability of residual housing policy might come at the price of increasing housing inequality, which may, in the end, lead to sudden rather than gradual policy evolution. ...
There has been a noticeable delay in the emergence of a sociology of debt, and of mortgage debt in particular. This paper seeks to fill this gap by testing whether and how the form of home financing influences welfare attitudes regarding the role of the state in housing provision and, consequently, the type of housing (welfare) policy. Specifically, we hypothesise that there are significant differences in attitudes toward the role of the state/municipalities in housing provision between homeowners who financed their home especially with the use of a mortgage debt and homeowners who received a substantial resource transfer from their family to acquire their home. We conducted our research in the Czech Republic and used data from a national survey on housing attitudes. The results demonstrate that within-family housing-related transfers strengthen the liberal attitudes of Czech homeowners and thus contribute to overall public resistance to restore public housing provision. Given that intergenerational transfers are common in East European post-socialist countries, our findings may explain why significant differences in housing regimes/policies persist between the old and new EU member states, despite EU integration and the shared experience of housing affordability crisis. The results of this research have also implications for policy practice: in super-homeownership societies, familialism in housing provision may weaken the traditional left–right axis in public welfare attitudes and, consequently, may contribute to the long-term preservation of a neoliberal housing policy. However, such a stable status quo may deepen social inequalities, which are transmitted across generations.
... The social housing sector has become more residualized, increasingly providing accommodation only to those of the lowest incomes (Whitehead and Goering, 2021). The most dramatic drop of social housing and the governments' withdrawal from the regulation of the housing market took place in the former socialist countries (Hegedus et al., 2013;Lux and Sunega, 2014). Governments have shifted to paying more universal or incomebased social benefits to households, such as housing and energy allowances. ...
The current housing affordability crisis, driven mainly by the financialization of housing and the government's retrenchment of social policies and provision of affordable housing, have affected growing inequalities in access to housing. The crises have hit young people especially hard. The recent trends call for systematic studies on the mechanisms generating such intergenerational inequality, considering the specifics of the prevailing housing regimes. Housing affordability in Tallinn has decreased due to fast-growing housing prices, as a result of an ultra-liberal housing regime, exemplified by housing financialization, capital accumulation, low level of governmental interventions and an overall increase in social inequalities. Based on EU-SILC data, it is shown how the recent trends during the decade between 2010 and 2020 have negatively impacted young people's access to homeownership—access has been greatly reduced for young cohorts, and it has become more differentiated, based on the socio-economic and labor market performance of households, as well as intergenerational transfers. Young households are increasingly residing in private rental dwellings, and many still rely on parental housing until their 30s. Rental housing, as compared to homeownership, has fewer advantages compared to homeownership—it brings no capital gains and is less secure, and rental stock tends to be located unevenly across urban space and to be in slightly worse condition compared to owner-occupied housing. This positions young people in an unfavorable position in the perspective of their housing career, and this can have severe consequences on their social inclusion.
... When Ireland joined the EU people could take mortgages at the relatively low euro interest rates and in consequence, a housing boom was observed (Rae and van den Noord, 2006). Much more information about housing systems and social housing in transition economies can be found in a book edited by Hegedüs et al. (2013), while the evolution of the private rental market in those countries is explained in a different book edited by the same publishers (2017). ...
Housing tenure decisions depend on individual preferences and the surrounding economic conditions, and change along economic changes and the development of the housing market. Poland is a post-socialist economy that has observed significant improvements in the housing market. The emergence of housing developers that increase the housing stock rather fast, a housing finance system and the still slow emergence of a private rental market allowed many people to make free tenure choices and to become independent. In this part of the paper we present the literature review and the historical background of the housing market in Poland.
... It is not our main intention to review theoretical debates around urban renewal and social/mass housing as studied by scholars at an urban scale (Reeves 2006, Musterd et al. 2009, Urban 2013, Hegedus et al. 2013, Cupers 2014, Maxim 2018. Instead, we propose an important yet relatively neglected point of entry for a socio-spatial examination of the interiors of the TOKI Uzundere Social Housing project by comparing the professionally-created living scenario with the socially-constructed space built by women according to their daily habits, routines, and behavior patterns. ...
This study focuses on migrant women’s experiences in TOKI Uzundere, a housing settlement built in Izmir (2009) by the Mass Housing Administration of Turkey (TOKI). It problematizes the incompatibility between the apartments’ standardized layouts and the residents’ spatial practices. The study argues that these interiors have become paradoxical spaces with the potential to be transformed by women struggling to fit them to their daily routines, and social and physical needs, by applying certain spatial tactics. These tactics were charted through in-depth interviews with women, observations inside their apartments, schematic drawings, and photography. Our analysis demonstrates how women’s everyday practices and spatial tactics challenge and reconfigure the assumed uses of the interiors in these social housing units.
... It is not our main intention to review theoretical debates around urban renewal and social/mass housing as studied by scholars at an urban scale (Reeves 2006, Musterd et al. 2009, Urban 2013, Hegedus et al. 2013, Cupers 2014, Maxim 2018. Instead, we propose an important yet relatively neglected point of entry for a socio-spatial examination of the interiors of the TOKI Uzundere Social Housing project by comparing the professionally-created living scenario with the socially-constructed space built by women according to their daily habits, routines, and behavior patterns. ...
This study focuses on migrant women’s experiences in TOKI Uzundere, a housing settlement built in Izmir (2009) by the Mass Housing Administration of Turkey (TOKI). It problematizes the incompatibility between the apartments’ standardized layouts and the residents’ spatial practices. The study argues that these interiors have become paradoxical spaces with the potential to be transformed by women struggling to fit them to their daily routines, and social and physical needs, by applying certain spatial tactics. These tactics were charted through in-depth interviews with women, observations inside their apartments, schematic drawings, and photography. Our analysis demonstrates how women’s everyday practices and spatial tactics challenge and reconfigure the assumed uses of the interiors in these social housing units.
... The Czech Republic and neighbouring post-socialist countries have witnessed a major transformation of their institutional and ideological foundations, and as a result we also have had a hand in creating 'grand narratives', either in our own work or in joint work with colleagues from other countries -for example, in a study of the housing and welfare transformations with Mark Stephens, or in analysing country clusters in the area of social housing policy with colleagues from the Metropolitan Research Institute (see Stephens et al. 2015, Hegedüs et al. 2013, or most recently Lux & Sunega 2020. It is certainly not true, as Dewilde claims, that we dismiss this approach in our Focus article. ...
In our Focus article we introduced pragmatic socioeconomics, a methodological and theoretical approach that we believe may create a more solid interdisciplinary bridge between sociology and mainstream economics. This paper reacts on the critical review of our approach by six academics recognised in the field. We devoted the most space to those comments that uncovered the blank spots in our approach or areas that we had poorly addressed. We better defined the position of pragmatic socioeconomic towards ‘grand naratives’, traditional economics, economic sociology or new institutional economics. Our new program certainly has a long road ahead of it before it can prove its value. Along the way it will have to deal with both unfair accusations and justified criticisms highlighting areas where it is theoretically and methodologically unclear – just as we have tried to deal with these criticisms in this paper. Whatever its future is, we hope that this paper is opening up an important interdisciplinary discussion much needed in housing studies.
... When Ireland joined the EU people could take mortgages at the relatively low euro interest rates and in consequence, a housing boom was observed (Rae and van den Noord, 2006). Much more information about housing systems and social housing in transition economies can be found in a book edited by Hegedüs et al. (2013), while the evolution of the private rental market in those countries is explained in a different book edited by the same publishers (2017). ...
Housing tenure decisions depend on individual preferences and the surrounding economic conditions, and change along economic changes and the development of the housing market. Poland is a post-socialist economy that has observed significant improvements in the housing market. The emergence of housing developers that increase the housing stock rather fast, a housing finance system and the still slow emergence of a private rental market allowed many people to make free tenure choices and to become independent. We analyse tenure choice determinants of Poles for the years 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 on EU-SILC data, distinguishing between co-residence with the parents, renting at market rates and owning a house. The average marginal effects obtained from multinomial logistic regressions allows us to conclude that ownership is strongly connected to the family status, but this relationship weakens over time. Unmarried people without children but with better incomes become increasingly more likely to be homeowners. Thus, ownership is not anymore a main domain of conventional families. Moreover, renting becomes an option to become independent for those who cannot afford to buy a house. But it is rather a temporary solution, because renting is more costly than buying a house with a mortgage. We also find evidence of the gender gap in homeownership, as women are more likely to be owners, and less likely to co-reside with their parents than men. Along the evolution of the housing finance system, growing wages make ownership more likely. We observe that the choices are more free in densely populated regions, where the rental market develops. We consider our research as a step towards an international cooperation to analyse this phenomenon across European countries. Hopefully other researchers at the ENHR would like to join us, in a similar fashion as the book "Milestones in European Housing Finance" was created.
POL
Rozwój sektora nieruchomości mieszkaniowych jest istotny dla wzrostu
gospodarczego kraju oraz służy podniesieniu standardu życia społeczeństwa.
Sytuacja mieszkaniowa w Polsce prezentuje się niekorzystnie na tle pozostałych krajów Unii Europejskiej. Zapotrzebowanie na mieszkanie, także z zasobów budownictwa społecznego stale rośnie, a to wymaga wsparcia i dobrze
dopasowanych programów mieszkaniowych ze strony kształtujących politykę
mieszkaniową kraju.
Zgodnie z art. 75 Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej każdy obywatel
ma prawo do godziwych warunków mieszkaniowych i zadaniem władz publicznych jest wspieranie wszelkich działań dążących do zaspokojenia potrzeb
mieszkaniowych, szczególnie osób zagrożonych wykluczeniem społecznym.
Coraz częściej jednak o takie działania dopominają się gospodarstwa domowe,
które nie są w stanie zakupić nieruchomości z powodu niewystarczających
środków finansowych, nie kwalifikując się jednocześnie na pomoc społeczną –
w tym przypadku w postaci mieszkań socjalnych.
Głównym celem pracy była charakterystyka sytuacji mieszkaniowej ze
szczególnym zwróceniem uwagi na najemców mieszkań społecznych. Z tego
też powodu zdecydowano się na diagnozę sytuacji mieszkaniowej mieszkańców zamieszkujących w zasobach OTBS sp. z o.o. w Olsztynie.
Wyniki badań wskazały, że ponad 40% badanych przed zasiedleniem zasobów OTBS sp. z o.o. w Olsztynie mieszkało z rodziną lub rodzicami. Połowa
respondentów właśnie od najbliższej rodziny lub znajomych dowiedziało się o
możliwościskorzystania z budownictwa społecznego. Głównym powodem wyboru tej formy budownictwa była jego korzystna forma, tj. zasiedlenie zasobu
bez konieczności zakupu. Wśród głównych zalet użytkowania mieszkań w ramach OTBS sp. z o.o. w Olsztynie ankietowani wskazali ich korzystną lokalizację. Do wad zaliczyli przede wszystkim wysokość opłat za mieszkania. Jednocześnie ponad 80% badanych pozytywnie oceniło swoją sytuację mieszkaniową. Świadczyło to z jednej strony o realnej ocenie swoich możliwości finansowych związanych z zakupem mieszkania oraz z drugiej strony, o dobrym dopasowaniu oferty OTBS sp. z o.o. w Olsztynie do potrzeb mieszkańców.
ENG
The development of the residential real estate sector is important for
the country's economic growth and serves to raise the standard of living of society. The housing situation in Poland is unfavorable compared to other European Union countries. The demand for housing, also from social housing resources, is constantly growing, and this requires support and well-prepared
housing programs from those shaping the country's housing policy.
Pursuant to Art. 75 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, every
citizen has the right to decent housing conditions and the task of public authorities is to support all activities aimed at meeting the housing needs, especially
of people at risk of social exclusion. However, such actions are increasingly
requested by households that are unable to purchase house or dwelling due to
insufficient financial resources and do not qualify for social assistance – in this
case in the form of social housing.
The main aim of the work was to characterize the housing situation with
particular attention to tenants of social housing. For this reason, it was decided
to diagnose the housing situation of residents living in the resources of OTBS
sp. z o.o. in Olsztyn.
The research results indicated that over 40% of the respondents before
settling the housing stock of OTBS sp. z o.o. in Olsztyn lived with family or
parents. Half of the respondents learned about the possibility of using social
housing from their closest family or friends. The main reason for choosing this
form of built environment was its advantageous form, i.e. settling the stock
without the need to purchase it. Among the main advantages of using apartments under OTBS sp. z o.o. in Olsztyn, respondents indicated their favorable
location. The main disadvantages were the high apartment fees. At the same
time, over 80% of respondents assessed their housing situation positively. This
proved, on the one hand, a realistic assessment of one's financial possibilities
related to the purchase of an apartment and, on the other hand, a good match of
the offer of OTBS sp. z o.o. in Olsztyn to the needs of residents.
The aim of this paper is to assess intergovernmental relations in the implementation of social housing policy in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Despite all mechanisms, efforts and resources, the pace of social housing delivery is not at a point where it is measurably satisfactory across all spheres of government. The performance of government shows a lack of institutionalised arrangements, coordination, and alignment in implementing social housing policy. A mixed-methods research approach was implemented. Interviews were conducted with senior managers and research questionnaires were administered with operational staff within the national, provincial government and the three metropolitan municipalities in Gauteng Province which included City of Tshwane, City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, state agencies involved in the delivery of social housing units and municipal social housing institutions, private and non-governmental social housing entities. The data were complemented by documentary content analysis pertaining to the provision of human settlements and social housing. The paper acknowledges the role played by government in implementing social housing policy, however, it proposes a model to fast track social housing delivery in Gauteng Province.
Resumen: Esta investigación identifica el papel que desempeñan tanto las normas energéticas básicas de la Unión Europea (que fomentan la adopción de fuentes de energía nacionales) como la legislación de transición energética (basada en reglamentos y directivas) y aclara que la necesidad jurídica de transponer las directivas al ordenamiento jurídico interno puede generar retrasos en la adopción de medidas políticas y legislativas por parte de los países de Europa central y oriental en función de la ponderación de los estímulos y desincentivos políticos, económicos y sociales. A continuación, se analizan varios factores generales y específicos (eficiencia energética de los edificios, energía renovable y movilidad) y se identifica un amplio conjunto de desincentivos. La conclusión de esta investigación es que existe un fuerte riesgo de que esta región se quede atrás (en relación con los países de Europa occidental) en el proceso de transición energética. Palabras clave: Factores contextuales, directivas, análisis económico del derecho, transición energética, incentivos, Kaldor-Hicks, Pareto, reglamentos.
________________________________________________________________________________________The energy transition policy Abstract:
This research identifies the role played by both the European Union's basic energy rules (which encourage the adoption of national energy sources) and energy transition legislation (based on regulations and directives) and clarifies that the legal need to transpose directives into the internal legal system can generate delays in the adoption of political and legislative measures by Central and Eastern Europe countries depending on the weighting of political, economic and social stimuli and disincentives. A number of general and specific factors (energy efficiency of buildings, renewable energy and mobility) are then analysed and a broad set of disincentives are identified. The conclusion of this research is that there is a strong risk that this region will be left behind (relative to Western European countries) in the energy transition process.
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