Russian cities currently feel the utmost need both for improving the affordability of housing and upgrading the quality and enhancing the beautification of the urban environment, develop public spaces, and expanding the diversity of forms of housing tenure for different categories of citizens. Implementation of the housing policy objectives necessitates a considerable update of urban planning policy which is currently characterized by minimum urban planning regulations and inadequate enforcement of those in place. Urban development regulation and land use system remain a source of ‘administrative rent’ and appear to be unable to ensure a transparent legal framework for investors and developers, which is replaced by high administrative barriers. The paper reviews the current state of housing and urban planning policies in Russia, the practice of reconciling the goals, objectives and instruments of the foregoing policies. Housing and urban planning policies both at federal and local levels are described and case studies of inconsistencies in the implementation of housing and urban planning policies in Russian cities are analyzed. The paper also sets forth the proposals on how to streamline housing and urban planning policies with a view to improving the affordability of housing and upgrading the quality of the urban environment.

Russian cities have been substantially influenced by the legacy of the Soviet centrally planned economy. Monotonous concrete-slab developments in residential areas with inadequate access to social infrastructure, along with dilapidated and obsolete individual residential developments, and abandoned industrial areas, create a typical scene of the middle zone of an urban settlement. Post-Soviet development of the housing market and residential construction market, regrettably, worsened the problem of the substandard urban environment. Acute housing needs and high housing demand caused the emergence of homogeneous prefabricated high-rise buildings in urban peripheries. As a result, Russian cities currently feel the utmost need both for improving the affordability of housing and upgrading the quality and enhancing the beautification of the urban environment, developing vibrant public spaces, expand the diversity of forms of housing tenure for different categories of citizens, assuring transportation links between urban areas, providing easy access to social infrastructure, and increasing the opportunities of urban dwellers for leisure and public activities. Multi-functional nature of built-up areas, a safe and comfortable environment for children and adolescents, an accessible environment for disabled persons, and, finally, spatial harmony and urban aesthetics that ensures a visually attractive ‘cityscape’ are also essential elements of a modern standard of the urban environment which is more and more appreciated by citizens.