Housing was probably the feature that most distinguished communist welfare states from their Western counterparts. Indeed, the differences were great enough that some scholars have spoken of an East European Housing Model (Hegedüs and Tosics 1996). The main characteristics of the model were a high degree of state ownership, centralized allocation of dwellings, strict limits on housing exchanges, extremely low and undifferentiated rents, strong tenant rights, and a dominant role for the state in new construction.

Housing reforms after the transition may not have been as salient as economic reforms or pension policy, but they present an interesting test of the responsiveness thesis for several reasons. In the first place there is the depth of the change: whereas communist regimes had proclaimed housing a human right and to a large extent decommodified it, the new democratic regimes had to adapt the housing sector to a market economy. Could governments turn a right into a market commodity and do so without angering the public? Housing policy is likewise worthy of study because of its differential effects. Unlike economic or pension reforms, housing policy had large effects on certain groups of citizens – residents of public housing – and small effects on others – homeowners. Responsiveness to the median voter may be more difficult where different groups have very different preferences.

This chapter looks at the changes introduced in housing policy after the transition. It focuses on three different areas.