Reform of Housing Property Rights in Post-Soviet Russia: From Owner-Occupation to the Diversity of Housing Tenure Forms

Abstract

In this chapter, I consider the process of social learning in the first issue area of Russian housing policy: the reform of housing property rights or the housing ownership structure. It is probably fair to say that this area of housing policy and specifically its central measure of housing privatisation are what most of us would think of when we hear about housing reform in Russia. When analysing the reform effort in this area, as well as in the other two dimensions of Russian housing policy, it is important to keep in mind that ultimately the efforts of policy-makers were directed towards solving Russia’s perpetual ‘housing question’ legacy, that is the problem of housing shortages bequeathed by the Soviet Union.¹ The key early reform measures in this issue area were housing privatisation and the formation of housing condominiums or associations of homeowners.² These policies aimed to transfer housing ownership via a policy of housing privatisation and the responsibility for housing maintenance via the formation of condominiums to individual homeowners. By withdrawing the prevalence of state ownership, policy-makers hoped that the Russian people would turn to the market to help solve their housing problems. In this way, they would be able to sell their old apartments and buy new more suitable accommodation.