Housing Policy: an End or a New Beginning

Housing is not a simple category that can be viewed from a single perspective. On one hand, housing is one of the basic human needs and the right to adequate housing has been classified as a basic human right. On the other hand, housing constitutes a special type of private property, traded on the market. Studies from six countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania, Poland and Slovakia) that make up this volume describe the different patterns of privatisation during the past decade and give an assessment of national housing policies. The country reports evaluate the effectiveness of local government housing policies, paying special attention to the comparison of different local government solutions regarding the issue of a decrease in housing affordability for low-and middle-income households and to their critical evaluation from the point of view of economic efficiency and social effectiveness.