Housing conditions vary widely across the EU and the fact that new member-states are lagging behind in this regard has even come onto the European policy agenda. This article examines housing conditions as an outcome of complex social developments and highlights specific reasons why housing conditions vary so much within the EU. Thus the specific impact is observed of factors which have been identified in the literature as characterising distinctive housing models: the eastern European housing model, the southern European housing model and the distinction between cost-renting and homeowning countries. Further, the impact of these factors, along with general socioeconomic development, is empirically assessed by a linear regression model based on the EQLS 2003 dataset. The results clearly support the thesis of economic development playing a decisive role, with it being the biggest single factor explaining variations in housing conditions across the EU, followed by the significant influence of policy choice and the incidence of family support.

In the paper we investigate the factors that affect a property's time on the market (TOM) in the residential real estate market in the case of a thin, illiquid market, such as those found in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In contrast to liquid markets, the time it takes to sell a property can vary from a few days to a few months. In Slovenia a residential property's marketability depends strongly on the price dynamics of the market, housing characteristics and the degree of overpricing. The most important determinants of the marketing time are the cost and availability of housing finance as well as the housing price index, and all three can be directly related to the affordability of housing. We develop a two-stage model of the determinants of TOM and a duration model. The results of the list price model show that as the age of property increases, its (list) price decreases with diminishing pace, while the size of the property has the opposite dynamic. The presence and size of parking lots also has a positive effect on the (list) price. The results of the Time on the Market model show that property characteristics, market conditions and macroeconomic determinants are all statistically significant determinants of TOM. The degree of overpricing turned out to be a statistically significant determinant of time on the market. However, this effect does not seem to be statistically significantly non-linear (U-shaped). Higher house prices (at the national level) and the average interest rate on housing loans both extend a property's time on the market while better availability of housing loans, in contrast, shortens the TOM. We additionally estimated a proportional hazard model of the TOM that yielded consistent results.

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Housing renovation is a topical issue in CEE countries facing the need to tackle their troubled postwar housing estates and improve their energy efficiency. In this paper the renovation decisions of households living in multidwelling buildings are modelled to identify the key determinants of such decisions and to gain a better insight into the reasons for the insufficient extent of renovation in CEE. Considering general factors as well as CEE specific factors, and specifically adding variables of social capital, renovation decision-making is modelled by applying a discrete choice framework of analysis. The results clearly show that, next to the physical characteristics of the stock, such as its age, an important role in the renovation process is played by residents and particularly their relations in terms of social capital. The results thus identify some of the key missing preconditions for renovating multidwelling buildings across CEE.

In our paper we analyze the incidence of intergenerational family transfers in relation to the changing conditions in the housing market and the market for housing finance and transformations in the institutional framework. The results imply that the incidence of intergenerational transfers is tied to the changing conditions in the housing market and the prevailing level of interest rates. Intergenerational transfers for a home purchase therefore act as an informal source of housing finance and play a strong cushioning role in terms of the harsh market conditions along with a housing policy that gives households hardly any alternative to homeownership.Intergenerational family transfers, housing market, housing policy,