Housing Standards 2003/2004:
Housing Policy in the Czech Republic - More Efficiently and More Effective

2. General assessment of selected housing policy instruments

2.3 Public subsidies for rental housing affordability

In this part of the text the authors aim to provide at least a partial answer to the question whether it is necessary to introduce, in addition to a second-generation rent control system, additional housing policy instruments to ensure sufficient affordability of housing for those households that would not be able to ensure adequate housing under market conditions with their own resources, namely whether a safety net funded from public sources is necessary.

The authors decided to focus on two of the most frequent and most discussed housing policy instruments: social housing and a housing allowance (rent allowance).

First subsidy - social housing

"Social housing is not a favoured term today. It implies an active role of the State, uses tax payer money and seems to be too remote from the market." (Priemus 1997: 549)

In almost all EU countries we will find a sector called in those countries as well as in the aggregate European statistics or research studies "social housing". Individual social housing systems differ and in some cases there is not even a consensus as to whether this term is appropriate for a certain housing sector in a concrete country (Sweden, Spain). It is therefore very difficult if not impossible to define "social housing in the European Union in general". Lux (ed.) (2002) provides the following definition of social housing: "Generally, social housing is understood as rental housing using which state bodies or municipalities attempt to ensure general equilibrium on the rental housing market and to ensure groups of population in need, which due to social or other reasons cannot obtain housing on a free market, dignified and appropriate housing for their household."

Reformulation of budgetary policies in developed economies in the 1980s and the 1990s led to a relatively radical reduction of public costs for housing and a greater emphasis on creating conditions conducive to greater involvement of private capital. The reform significantly affected the social housing system.

Trends, basic rules (division of powers, rent control, dwelling allocation rules) and concrete case studies of social housing systems in selected EU countries are provided in the publication Housing - A Public Matter (Lux (ed.) 2002).