Hungary Housing
Private home in Mezokovesd
Courtesy Sam and Sarah Stulberg
For many years, the housing conditions in Hungary were
only a
peripheral concern of the communist regime. The housing
that
existed after World War II had many shortcomings. Most
prewar
apartments had only one room and a kitchen area, and these
facilities, already overcrowded and expensive, had been
heavily
damaged during the war. In 1949 the country had 265
inhabitants
for every 100 rooms. After 1949 the government confiscated
existing housing and redistributed it. The government
chose not
to invest heavily in housing, although many buildings were
reconstructed. The new regime affirmed the right of all
inhabitants to decent housing, prohibited evictions, and
regulated rents, but these measures did not accelerate
construction. During the early years of communist rule,
economic
planning gave priority to the building of new plants and
other
industrial installations rather than to new housing. Thus,
construction of housing did not keep pace with urban
industrial
expansion, which had attracted large numbers of workers
from the
villages into the cities. Not until the Fourth Five-Year
Plan
(1971-75) did the housing problem receive serious,
sustained
attention. Progress then became more rapid, and the
government
experimented with various approaches to the problem.
Because of
budget constraints, the government abandoned its goal of
providing low-rent apartments for all citizens. Instead,
it urged
people to invest in their own housing and made available
lowinterest loans for the construction of cooperative
apartment
buildings and private homes. This policy spurred
construction and
helped to reduce the overall housing shortage. However,
most new
housing units were built for the higher-income groups.
Families
with lower incomes continued to rely on state-financed or
industry-financed low-rent housing, which usually had long
waiting lists of prospective tenants.
In the 1980s, housing remained a major concern for
families
at all status and income levels. As the government's
direct role
in providing housing diminished, many families tried to
use any
surplus income they had to acquire modern, spacious, wellequipped dwellings. For private individuals wishing to
build
dwellings, the most important resources were family and
friends
(for labor) and loans (usually sponsored by the government
at 3
percent interest for up to 70 percent of the total
construction
cost and repayable over a maximum of thirty-five years).
As of
1983, only about 22.3 percent of the country's dwellings
were
state owned, down from 33.9 percent in the first half of
the
1970s. The remaining units were privately owned. In 1986
approximately 69,430 dwellings were constructed, 7,620 by
the
state and 61,800 by private individuals (the vast majority
of
whom received some state funding). However, despite
significant
gains, housing was still not sufficient for the country's
needs.
Data as of September 1989
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