ABSTRACT
Political changes in the early 1990s introduced markets, democracy and important institutional reforms, thus changing dramatically the housing policy scene. The understanding of differences and similarities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) housing policies compels a deeper exploration of the housing reform path in the 'transition from planning to markets'. However, changes in the housing systems in CEE countries are much more dramatic, subsidies less transparent, and notions of convergence do not really match the reality of widening differences in the structure and operation of housing markets between Albania and some of its Central European neighbors. The post-privatization phase of housing reforms broadly can be characterised by a shift from more radical and rational models of policy-making to the politics of incrementalism, where the policy trajectory includes 'trial and error' and offers concessions to different institutional interests.
