Burdyak A. Housing in Post-Soviet Russia: Inequality and the Problem of Generations // The Journal of Social Policy Studies. 2015. Vol. 13. No. 2. P. 273–288. (original) (raw)

In 2000-s intensive housing construction led to the growth of average housing per capita, but the population surveys show that large-scale and widespread improvements for individual households has not happened. To a greater extent reach become reacher in terms of housing, still many households live in small house or flat, therefore inequality becomes higher. The main objective of this research is to get more precise picture of housing inequality in two dimensions - in per capita square meters of housing and in terms of housing value. Demographic shift towards an aging society is raising a question of housing deficit for the second generation of home-owners. Looking at different stages of the life cycle we can conclude the following. Households of singles and households at the end of the lifecycle have the best housing among all. The housing problem at ‘young couple’ stage of life is very severe; some adult children live in the household of parents.The problem become worse with the birth of children. Regardless of the measuring method families with dependent children are the most deprived in housing. High demand for housing is concentrated among low income households, which requires special attention to the social housing programs development. A huge difference in housing prices between regions, cities and towns makes inequality of housing equity and outcomes of the privatistion more pronounced. It serves as deforming factor in intergenerational housing resource flows between regions and makes it hard to overcome unaffordability of housing for young generation. Federal measures to support families with children with a fixed nominal value, e.g. program of the parent (maternity) capital, have different impact across the regions and settlements. The most effective they are in poor regions and small cities compared to regional centers. Analysis is based on the data of representative survey ‘Person, Family, Society’ with a sample of 9.5 thousand of households and a wide range of Rosstat data.