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Affordable Housing in the Context of Inadequate Housing Polices in Croatia

During the transition period in Croatia, the state lost control over the housing sector, which fell into the hands of citizens, getting closer to the neo-liberal type of housing system determined by the out-of-control market and a crucial role of the private actors (investors and developers). Croatia thus became one of the postsocialist countries with the largest share of private ownership as a tenure status over flats and in which the process of housing privatization has brought many changes. In the context of strong processes of privatization and financialization of housing and the reduced role of state, there were many new aspects hindering the resolving of housing rights and problems. According to the 2011 census, 88.9% of flats in Croatia became private property or coownership. In the beginning of the 2000s subsidized housing for particular categories of inhabitants through the so-called POS model (State-Subsidized Housing Construction) started primarily in the capital Zagreb. This model was not systematic enough and until the present day it has appeared only periodically, answering to the existing demand insufficiently. It involved subsidized purchase, but not rental options except in some isolated cases. Subsidized flats for the young and other threatened social groups further deepen the problems, because it does not open the country’s housing policy to new solutions. Therefore, for particular groups of citizens, such as fixed-term employees, mostly younger, then unemployed or poorer citizens, and other marginal groups, the opportunity to obtain their own housing may be hindered, primarily due to the process of mass privatization. This also has brought a significant increase in the number of private construction companies that were building even more than was the demand for housing units. In the period of transition, a close connection of the state and the private sector, construction companies and banks is particularly emphasized, both in Croatia and in other transition countries. In the Croatian context, affordability nevertheless refers to the option of purchase and to creditworthy citizens, and not to the other models, such as public rental housing or social housing which remain the models of caring for the threatened groups of citizens, and not the broader population. So, affordable housing in the post-socialist context has a very one-sided meaning that cannot be compared to the same concept in Western European countries. All of the above points to inadequate housing policy in Croatia in the post-socialist period, which is not in line with affordable housing for all.

affordable housing, Croatia, post-socialist context, privatization of housing, inadequate housing policy, threatened groups of citizens.

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