"Social" housing in the Central Europe countries: structural changes, trends and attitudes towards current situation

Martin Lux

Abstract:

Although there is no common housing policy of the European Union (EU) all the EU member states (with the only exception of Greece) have the social rental housing sector composing between 3% (Spain) and 40% (Netherlands) of the total housing stock. In the most of the CEE countries the large privatisation of former state housing stock took place, in some of them the rest of rental flats mostly in ownership of municipalities after the privatisation do not form, however, a marginal share. The rental housing construction decreased geometrically during the transition in most of the CEE countries due to the cuts in state housing expenditures, but the "quasi-ownership" rights of tenants mostly remained the same as during Communism. This system leads to the partially artificial perception of lack of flats, to the rise in market rents and to the strengthening of social tensions between poor and rich households. The share of higher income households profiting from the rent regulation in the "social" sector is much higher in the Czech Republic than in the EU countries and the real lack of housing allowance model worsen the situation of households of pensioners. In some of the countries the legislative conditions for new social housing construction (housing associations) have been prepared (Poland, Slovenia), in the Czech Republic no measures in that sphere were accepted up to now (they form a part of the government housing conception). The paper present information on the development in the sphere of "social" housing in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland between 1990-1997. The situation in the Central European countries is shown in comparative context with the situation in the EU member countries. Inherited and new social tensions on the social housing market and the perception of "social injustice" are described.