Belarus Housing
Typical modern rural housing in the village of Morach, Kletsk
rayon
Courtesy Anatol Klashchuk
Unavailable
Modern urban housing, Maladzyechna
Courtesy John Mumford
In Belarus about 75 percent of urban housing and many
village
homes were destroyed during World War II, forcing many
people to
live in makeshift huts and hovels while housing (along
with
industrial and public buildings) was reconstructed after
the war.
This chronic housing shortage was recently exacerbated by
the
need to resettle Chornobyl' victims. In 1993 per capita
housing
space was approximately nineteen square meters (slightly
less in
urban areas), small by Western standards. As is true for
most of
the former Soviet Union, much of Belarus's urban housing
stock
consists of drab multistory, prefabricated units. The norm
for
rural housing is individual homes, which tend to be of a
higher
quality.
In July 1992, the Law on Privatization of Housing was
passed,
but little progress was made until mid-1993, when
amendments were
made to the laws to reassess housing values. Plans called
for
citizens to receive housing vouchers, which could not be
exchanged for cash. In 1993 private housing accounted for
49
percent of the housing stock in Belarus.
Data as of June 1995
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