Geoadria, Vol. 25 No. 2, 2020.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.15291/geoadria.3083
Effects of the housing privatization process in post-socialist Croatia
Anđelina Svirčić Gotovac
orcid.org/0000-0001-9462-0734
; Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper deals with some of the most significant changes in the domain of housing during the socialist and post-socialist period. The transition from the 1990s towards the democratic system and market-oriented economy further empowered the privatization of ownership, and especially home ownership. The changes are especially visible in the quality of housing and housing policy, and in socio-economic and socio-demographic circumstances, which are related to them causally. The provision of housing was transferred from the state to the citizens, with home ownership becoming a privilege. In the process of repurchase and return of nationalized flats from socialism, there was the process of housing privatization and Croatia became one of the post-socialist countries with a greater share of home ownership. Such a situation resulted in numerous consequences, visible in all aspects of life, especially demographic and economic. They also influenced the housing standard. In the context of strong processes of privatization and financialization of housing and the reduced role of state, there are many new aspects hinder housing rights and problems from being resolved. They are followed by economic problems due to pushing of the market and increasing the private civil engineering sector, along with the escalation of the global financial crisis that affected the Croatian market, too. Moreover, country’s unfavourable demographic trends are visible in the reduction of the average family size, and the increase in the number of families without children, which leads to different housing demands.
Keywords
socialist and post-socialist context; privatization of housing; housing standard; financialization of housing; Europeization process; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
248757
URI
Publication date:
26.12.2020.
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