Size of dwellings
In the majority of European countries for which data are available, dwellings have three to five rooms. However, the number of dwellings with less than 3 rooms is also high in central and eastern Europe and the CIS. In North America, small-sized dwellings (less than 3 rooms) are few and there is an almost equal distribution in the percentage of dwellings that fall in the “3-5 rooms” and the “more than 5 rooms” categories. Among the countries in western Europe, Cyprus, with more than half of its total dwellings having three to five rooms, also has a relatively high number of large dwellings (six or more rooms) (Table 7.1).
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Tenure of dwellings
The proportion of owner occupied dwellings is approximately 90 % or more for several countries in central and eastern Europe and CIS owing to the transfer of property from the State to individuals since 1990. The non-transition countries in the ECE region reported owner occupancy rates ranging from 50 to 80 per cent, except for Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Owner-occupancy rates for these three countries were less than 40 percent (Table 7.1).
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Age of dwellings
In 2000, more than 40 percent of the United Kingdom’s dwelling stock was more than 55 years old. Among the countries that reported, Denmark and France also have a high proportion of old dwelling stocks. In Cyprus, however, a quarter of its dwelling stock is relatively young (less than 10 years old) and only about 8 percent represents dwellings more than 55 years old. In eastern and central Europe and the CIS countries, there are high percentages of dwellings built after 1946 as a considerable number of the dwellings in these countries were destroyed during World War II (Figure 7.2).
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Quality of housing
In western Europe and North America, over 95% of dwellings are equipped with piped water, bath or shower and a flush toilet (the percentage is a little lower in Portugal and Turkey). In the central and east European countries, these percentages are mostly over 70 (except for Romania where it is considerably lower). In the CIS countries in general, there are relatively low percentages of dwellings equipped with facilities like piped water, fixed shower or bath, flush toilet, and central heating (Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine stand out as positive exceptions). In particular, Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Moldova have less than 50 percent of dwellings with piped water and an even lower percentage of dwellings equipped with the other facilities (Table 7.3).
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New dwellings completed
In 2000, approximately 3.3 million dwellings were completed in 35 countries of the ECE region for which data are available. Compared to 1990, this figure is nearly 2.5 million dwellings less. The decline in the completion of dwellings was most evident in the central and east European and Nordic countries. In contrast, Ireland and Israel have more than doubled their dwellings completion during the ten-year period (Table 7.4).
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Rent indices
The data on rent indices shows steep increases for most of the central and east European and CIS countries during the transition period in the 1990s. On the one hand, this is caused by general inflation in these countries. On the other hand, the rents were very low in these countries at the beginning of the transition period (as most were regulated by the State) and have often increased much more than the general Consumer Price Index. In the rest of the region (except Turkey) the rents in 2001 were on average about 20% higher than in 1995. The country with the smallest rent increase is Sweden where the rents in 2001 were only 2% higher than in 1995 (Table 7.7)
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Tables and charts
7.1
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7.2
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7.3
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7.4
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7.5
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7.6
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7.7
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CHAPTER 7
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