ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses a brief overview of the conditions and trends of urban housing development in the Central, Eastern and Southern European region, concentrating on the period between 1993 and 1998. It highlights the most significant aspects of change in the housing conditions of cities under study in the sub-region. The chapter focuses on tenure transformation and affordability of housing with a particular emphasis on differences and similarities in these processes of change. It addresses patterns of tenure change, affordability of housing as well as emerging policy challenges associated with growing poverty. Tenure transformation has been the most significant aspect of housing change with a quarter of the six million dwellings being privatized within five years. The chapter concludes that the urban housing agenda is important since it affects the life of almost two thirds of the population of the sub-region.
