Provision of affordable housing in Europe, North America and Central Asia: policies and practices
Introduction:
Affordable Housing For All: A Call For Action:
This report provides an overview of progress achieved in the provision of affordable housing in the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The overview is guided by the commitments in the UN Habitat Agenda and other regional housing policy initiatives. The UN Habitat Agenda adopted in 1996, and the Declaration on cities and other human settlements in the new millennium adopted by the Special session of the UN General Assembly in June 2001, reaffirm the commitment of Governments to ensure access to adequate housing. In the Habitat Agenda, the right to adequate housing means that “everyone will have adequate shelter that is healthy, safe, secure, accessible and affordable and that includes basic services, facilities and amenities, and will enjoy freedom from discrimination in housing and legal security of tenure”. In order to achieve this fundamental goal an emphasis was placed on collaboration between public and private actors and institutions and ‘enabling strategies’.
METHODOLOGY:
The analytical assessment is based on existing information from government reports, such as the most recent UN-HABITAT Global Reports on Human Settlements and State of the World Cities Reports. The analysis draws on comparative evaluations on the topic carried out by major international organizations and research institutes, the Housing Profiles and Land Reviews of the UNECE as well as country specific assessments of affordable housing alternatives. It incorporates statistics and housing indicators from officially published sources of information and international databases.
Factors Underlying Differences In Housing Provision:
Countries in the UNECE region have a range of different housing provision systems. This legacy is an important determinant of housing conditions and access to affordable housing. While the legacy is critical, housing policy responses in the last decade need to be reviewed in the context of economic, social and urban change. These drivers of change in regional housing submarkets increasingly map a diverse set of housing challenges and housing policy trajectory across the UNECE region. In the economic realm, countries with traditional market economies have experienced a strong economic growth and major progress in their structural reform agenda in the past decade.
Economic Change:
The recent expansion of the European Union with ten more countries in 2005 and another two in 2007 has provided a major boost for better economic performance in the new accession States. Macroeconomic data indicate that growth prospects in the Euro area are modest with the loss of momentum more apparent in the biggest economies—Germany and France. Recent data indicate that average income per capita, measured in purchasing power parity, in Western Europe is US$ 25,000, while in CIS it tends to be as low as US$2,500.
Social Change:
Population growth in the region has remained modest – less than 0.5% in Western Europe and 3% in North America, mostly attributed to immigration. The countries in transition have experienced years of negative population growth, a result of emigration, lower reproduction rates and responses to economic hardship. While demographic developments are relatively stable across the UNECE, poverty has increased. The reality of over 74 million people in the European Union living at risk of poverty in 2005, with one in six people experiencing poverty after social transfers, has become a significant social and political challenge.
Urban Change:
The UNECE region is overwhelmingly urbanized, with more than 75 percent of the population concentrated in urban areas and a growing complexity of urban challenges. The level of urbanization in Western Europe is 80 percent, with the United Kingdom and Belgium exceeding 90 percent. In North America over 80 percent of the population is urbanized. The countries in transition have an average rate of urbanization close to 61 percent, which is considerably higher in the largest countries – the Russian Federation (73.3%), Poland (62%), the Czech Republic (74.5%) and Hungary (65.9%).
Housing Systems And Housing Conditions:
Housing reforms in the UNECE region in the past decade have promoted policies to reassert market forces and reduce State intervention. With respect to housing provision, they have emphasized deregulation, private sector involvement and demand-based subsidies. While the overall goal of these reforms has been to improve the economic and social efficiency of the housing systems, responses across the region demonstrate diversity. Recent comparative studies based on the evaluation of experiences in Western and Eastern Europe have advanced the thesis of policy divergence, convergence and collapse.
Conclusion:
The comparative analysis identified major challenges in the provision of affordable housing in the 56 countries of the UNECE region and policy responses to address the critical needs of vulnerable groups in a more effective and efficient manner. Despite overall improvement of housing conditions in most of the countries, lack of progress in several critical areas remains a major concern—growing affordability problems, homelessness, limited social housing provision and land shortages in high growth areas. Drawing on the experience of different countries and cities in the region, it is clear that housing policy changes are urgently needed to ensure that access to adequate and affordable housing becomes a priority.
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