Management of privatised housing: policies and practices in East and West

Sale of public and social housing has been a major aspect of housing policies in the past decades. Privatisation has occurred most radically in within Eastern European countries and China, but has also taken place within some Western European countries and Australia. In all countries, privatisation has lead to new problems for housing management. As a result of the privatisation, many estates are now in a state of mixed (public and private) ownership, which raises questions about the division of responsibilities between public and private owners. Adequate legislation to deal with this situation is lacking. The public managers are sometimes hampered by the (still) bureaucratic mechanisms within their organisations, while the new owners are not used to being responsible for the maintenance of their dwellings. Furthermore, there are limited financial resources for maintenance and renewal among public and private owners. At the same time the need for investments is pressing, particularly within the massive housing estates dating from the communist era. Thus, the management of privatised housing is an important topic of international concern, which could benefit from an international exchange of knowledge. In our paper we present a preliminary summary of a large international cooperative research project that focused on the sale policies pursued by governments and landlords, the management problems in (partly) privatised estates and approaches that have been developed to deal with management in such estates.