Housing Stratification in the European Union

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the housing systems of market countries in Western Europe and countries with transitional economies in Eastern Europe. The research focuses on the housing stratification defined as social inequalities in housing needs. Data were collected from the descriptive statistics of sociodemographic and cross-country differences presented by Eurostat and NGO Housing Europe containing indicators of housing stratification.The study showed a discrepancy between housing conditions in the Eastern European and developed Western countries in meeting housing needs. Exploring differences in the distribution of the population by place of residence and by type of residence, the authors come to a conclusion on the existence of a ―cargo cult‖ formed in the former socialist countries with respect to residential real estate.The concept of ―rumanianization‖ is suggested as a result of the ranking of maturity and effectiveness of housing policies in different countries. It describes the worst case of organizing relationships in the housing sphere. This case presumes that most dwellings remain in unserved and unencumbered private property, that mortgage and housing loans are absent or underdeveloped, and that any types of rentals are unaccounted for by the statistics and thus stay outside of state control.The authors demonstrate that use of the positive European experience in reduction of social inequality in housing may improve the efficiency of the implementation of national and regional housing programs and also may provide a transition to a socially oriented type of economic development in the future