Public Housing in the Post-Socialist States of Central and Eastern Europe: Decline and an Open Future

One key consequence of give-away privatizations was that public housing in most post-socialist states declined within a few years to a residual share of total housing market. Despite the large differences in public/social housing policies introduced after 1995, this article will show that that almost all new social housing measures proved to be unsustainable, ineffective and often had the unintended consequence of further enhancing homeownership tenure in post-socialist housing systems. The reasons for the limited success of new social housing policies are attributed to broader historical and institutional factors, such as the ‘privatization trap’, the ‘decentralization paradox’, the impact of the informal economy and a strong socialist legacy in housing policies. These findings contribute to the study of how post-socialist housing systems emerged, and reveal how short-term policies can produce long-term structural change and can become a barrier to effective and sustainable social housing policies.