Mechanisms of property ownership change and social change in inner-city Warsaw (Poland)

Magdalena Górczyńska

Urban Studies, 2018, vol. 55, issue 13, 2803-2820

Abstract: Taking a production-side approach, the article discusses how property restitution and privatisation have created rent and value gaps, and influenced social change in the inner city of Warsaw (Poland). Specifically, a rent gap (resulting from restitution) and a value gap (created by low-cost privatisation) are hypothesised to have produced different ownership structures in pre-war residential buildings, with different implications for social change. These effects are assumed to be modulated by three factors: legal constraints, availability of private capital and changing residential preferences. The main findings show that the national legislation and municipal regulations with respect to low cost privatisation created the value gap and favoured intergenerational property transfer and lower residential mobility. The value gap has been eliminated by the changes in municipal regulations. Second, a lack of private capital was a key element in disinvestment in the 1990s, and private developers have since become key actors in shaping the housing offer and have triggered intensive gentrification. Third, residential choices often follow family reasons (inheritance of a unit), and are loosely coupled with a ‘back to the city’ movement. The contemporary choices of many newcomers are still embedded in opportunities created by earlier privatisation. Finally, former municipal tenants in restituted buildings come under pressure from new, private owners to leave their homes. Paradoxically, restitution, seen as a mechanism for social justice, has led to social injustice. Overall, it appears that both privatisation and restitution have fuelled problems of affordability, and led to the exclusion of lower-income households from the housing market.

Keywords: gentrification; post-socialist city; pre-war housing; privatisation; property restitution; 绅士化; å Žç¤¾ä¼šä¸»ä¹‰åŸŽå¸‚; æˆ˜å‰ ä½ æˆ¿; ç§ æœ‰åŒ–; 房产归还 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098017730006 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:13:p:2803-2820

DOI: 10.1177/0042098017730006

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().