This article focuses on the problem of wealth inequalities as an as yet overlooked axis of social inequalities in the Czech Republic. Wealth inequalities and their development over time are measured here on the basis of the value of the real estate (a flat or house) in which the household lives. The value of household real estate has grown significantly in recent decades in the Czech Republic and Czechs still favour owner-occupied housing over other forms of housing tenure. Households whose parents were also homeowners enjoy an increasingly more evident advantage in acquiring owneroccupied housing themselves. Using selected indicators of income and wealth inequalities, this article shows that in every year observed in this study, wealth inequalities in the form of residential real estate were greater than income inequalities in Czech society. The article also finds that in the observed period lower-income homeowner households recorded lower unrealised yield on the price appreciation of the real estate they live in that higher-income homeowner households did. These findings have significant implications for measuring social inequalities, identifying potential barriers to the entry of new households into the owner-occupied housing segment, and the use of owner-occupied housing as a form of old-age security.
The goal of this paper is (1) to describe the history and the most recent development of social housing system in the Czech Republic and (2) critically assess earlier and recent attempts to solve missing social housing strategy in this country. In general, the paper intends to contribute to literature on housing policy formulation in countries in transition from planning to market economy and thus provide insight into main factors that may explain unsustainability and weakness of housing strategies in post-socialist environment. Lack of competence, constrained discussion during programme/strategy preparation and the dominance of ideology over rational argument are found to be critical factors for the past and possibly future social housing policy failures in the Czech Republic.
Econometric models have produced contradictory results and have failed to provide warning of housing market crashes. The article aims to illustrate how econometrics was unable to reliably predict the recent housing price bubble and detect the disequilibrium in the housing markets. The authors will demonstrate that two distinct but well specified econometric models, using the same data, can lead to different outcomes. The authors argue that the demand for housing is influenced by social constructs, social norms, ideologies, unrealistic expectations, symbolic patterns, and that the actual choice of housing is the outcome of complex social interactions with reference groups. Consequently, it is necessary to analyse the potential instability of social constructs, norms, expectations and the changing character of social interactions to better understand purchasing behaviour and, then, housing price volatility.
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