ABSTRACT
As mentioned in Part I of this book, before 1990, most of the economy in socialist states was in state ownership and was subject to central planning. Despite some differences (especially the reemergence of market logic in some parts of the economy in the former Yugoslavia and in Hungary), in the field of housing, this meant extensive public (state) interventions directed at decommodifying housing, such as housing subsidies, property expropriations, and rent/price regulations. These interventions created a segment of mass public (semipublic) rental housing, where rent-setting systems ensured that rents were kept at extremely low levels.
