The transition to markets dominates the development agenda of the 1990s. Financial sector reforms are central to a successful transition to a market economy. The author focuses on one dimension of these reforms: the development of housing finance institutions and services. He presents a progress...

The transformation of the planned economies of central and eastern Europe to market economies has focused on economic stabilization and liberalization, privatization, and financial sector development. The housing sector and the mortgage market have been factors in each of these processes but not...

Problems of developing financial services for housing are acute in transitional socialist economies. The authors examine contractual savings for housing (CSH), which are often advocated as a primary solution, especially in Central and Eastern European countries. A CSH instrument links a phase of...