At a panel discussion on 24 April 2018, IUE experts presented a review of international and national practices in urban development regulation for improved housing affordability. A study by IUE was presented by T. Polidi, IUE Executive Director and Real Estate Market Department Director.
According to T. Polidi, at the stage of strong economic growth, with annual GDP growth at 7 percent, in Russia during the first decade of the 21st century, the increase in household income, combined with practically unlimited possibilities for developing cities’ fringes and peri-urban areas, resulted in a significant increase in residential construction, though without paying much attention to its quality. Today we have different economic conditions when real household income is shrinking, thus putting limits to the market potential, along with a scarcity of areas most attractive for development. The urge for creating a comfortable urban environment makes it necessary to ensure the access to affordable housing via the development of market housing, social housing and also non-profit rental housing. This is the case in foreign countries where the homeowners’ share is insignificant, but along with the creation of ‘expensive’ urban environment the mechanisms for redistribution of private urban resources for development of rental housing, including the housing affordable for households with modest and low income, are being formed.
