Publications to Download

Lux M. (ed.), P. Sunega, M. Mikeszová, J. Sládek, T. Katrňák, T. Dvořák, T. Kostelecký, K. Báťa, K. Bernardyová 2011

Housing Standards 2010/2011
Social inequalities and market risks in the housing market

Prague: Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Housing Standards 2010/2011 is the fifth monograph in a series with the same title published by the Institute of Sociology AS CR. Although each volume in the series is a separate monograph devoted to one main theme, which in this case is social inequalities in housing and market risks in the housing market in the Czech Republic, they all are divided into a module section and an analytical section devoted to the given main theme. The structure of the module section is the same in each monograph and it is designed to present time series on trends in the macroeconomic situation, the mortgage market, building savings, consumption expenditure on housing, and demographic development in the Czech Republic.

The analytical section of this most recent monograph describes the effects of the transformation of conditions in the housing sector on social inequalities and market systemic risks in the Czech Republic, and in the final chapter it proposes some reforms to housing policy conducive to minimising inequalities and risks.

The first two chapters are devoted to analysing the social inequalities that have arisen as a result of the restitution and privatisation of the housing stock. Using qualitative social research methods some theoretical concepts were tested that explain the causes of these state interventions. The next four chapters of the monograph focus on analysing various dimensions of social inequalities in the Czech housing sector: inequalities in housing affordability (chapter 3), inequalities in housing tenure, housing quality, relative housing expenditures and residential wealth (chapter 4), regional inequalities in housing affordability (chapter 5), and finally, extreme forms of social inequalities in housing – social exclusion and homelessness (chapter 6).

In the next part of the analytical section, chapters 7 to 9, the focus is on the systemic risks in the Czech housing market. Chapter 7 looks at the sustainability of trends in the prices of owner-occupied housing and the risk of a price bubble in the Czech housing market. Chapter 8 uses an international comparison of the effects of the global economic crisis on the housing market and mortgage financing in the Czech Republic and other countries as the backdrop to a discussion of the importance of maintaining tenure-neutral (balanced) housing system as a factor in reducing systemic risks in the housing market. Chapter 9 focuses on describing the systemic risks in the Czech housing market based on the results of a survey carried out among mortgage lenders.

Chapter 10 to some extent summarises the main findings of the preceding chapters and above all identifies those social inequalities in the housing sector that have the potential to seriously damage social cohesion in society and those systemic risks in the housing market that have the potential to have a serious hinder to sustainable economic growth of the Czech economy. The main policy implication of these findings is the need to maintain balanced housing system in the Czech Republic (especially with the sufficient share of private renting housing), augment the tenure neutrality of Czech housing policy, and better target housing policy instruments. The last chapter offers general recommendations for reforms to housing policy aimed at reducing social inequalities and systemic risks in the housing market, and provides a rough outline simulating how they would work in practice.