Housing Restitution and Privatisation: Both Catalysts and Obstacles to the Formation of Private Rental Housing in the Czech Republic and Estonia

Martin Lux, Anneli Kährik and Petr Sunega

International Journal of Housing Policy, 2012, vol. 12, issue 2, 137-158

Abstract: The return of property expropriated during the communist period to previous owners or to their descendants (property restitution) led to the quick emergence of a private rental sector in those post-communist countries that applied a physical form of property restitution soon after 1990. The Czech Republic and Estonia are examples of such countries. Within just a few years, as a result of property restitution, a private rental sector grew out of almost non-existence to become a significant part of the countries’ total housing stock. However, the character of this sector remained different from the private rental sector found in countries with advanced economies – especially owing to specific rent regulation, tenant protection and, albeit indirectly, public housing privatisation. This article analyses and compares the genesis of private rental tenure in the Czech Republic and Estonia. Its main goal is to demonstrate how state regulations and interventions have influenced tenure choice, the formation of social norms, and thus the permanent perception of private renting. In both transition countries private renting gradually acquired the character of a transitional and residual form of housing. State interventions early on in the transition were probably the most significant factors behind the fact that private renting did not establish itself as a real tenure alternative to owner-occupied housing.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14616718.2012.681574 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:intjhp:v:12:y:2012:i:2:p:137-158

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REUJ20

DOI: 10.1080/14616718.2012.681574

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Housing Policy is currently edited by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Gerard van Bortel and Richard Ronald

More articles in International Journal of Housing Policy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().