Decisions to Renovate: Identifying Key Determinants in Central and Eastern European Post-socialist Countries

Abstract

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.

Approaches towards social deprivation: Reviewing measurement methods

“…In Poland and other post-socialist countries, compulsory segregation within settlements, a legacy of housing of the second half of the twentieth century, can be clearly seen. Currently, slight changes in the structure of housing -a slow outflow of a wealthier group of residents to the outskirts of cities is noticeable (Sykora, 2009;Cirman et al, 2013).…”

A Critical-Realist View of Housing Quality within the Post-Communist EU States: Progressing towards a Middle-Range Explanation

“…As the 1990s reforms of housing privatization and restitution are by now well-documented (Clapham et al 1996;Lowe and Tsenkova 2003), we will focus on the changes that have taken place since 2000. Economic growth and remittances have stimulated new housing construction throughout the region, stirring (self-built) suburbanization (Hirt 2008;Soaita 2013;Stanilov 2007), private regeneration of communist housing estates (Cirman, Mandič, and Zorić 2013;Soaita 2012;Vranic, Vasilevska, and Haas 2015) and gentrification in some cities (Górczyńska 2016;Kovács, Wiessner, and Zischner 2012).…”

The European Energy Divide

“…Research focusing on the relationship between a household's awareness of climate change issues, on one hand, and energy efficiency retrofits, on the other, has also provided a range of energy poverty-relevant insights (Bouzarovski, 2015). It has highlighted that the poor quality of the housing stock may combine with the feeling of being too cold, hot or uncomfortable in driving energyrelated renovations in privately owned dwellings (Bartiaux et al, 2012;Cirman, Mandic, & Zoric, 2013).…”