Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment

Bulgaria's housing sector provides a window into the broader issues of the country's social, and economic transformation. This process has been difficult, and, as was the case in many transition countries, one of the main problem areas has been the housing sector. While the government has...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Report
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	HOUSING CONSTRUCTION SOCIETY FINANCE GROWTH POLICY URBANIZATION INSTITUTIONS POVERTY HOUSING FINANCE AFFORDABILITY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/776551508491315626/Bulgaria-Housing-sector-assessment-final-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28563

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-285632021-05-25T09:04:40Z Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment World Bank HOUSING CONSTRUCTION SOCIETY FINANCE GROWTH POLICY URBANIZATION INSTITUTIONS POVERTY HOUSING FINANCE AFFORDABILITY Bulgaria's housing sector provides a window into the broader issues of the country's social, and economic transformation. This process has been difficult, and, as was the case in many transition countries, one of the main problem areas has been the housing sector. While the government has played an active role in reforming the housing sector since 2004, and continued with initiatives to improve energy efficiency in residential buildings, new sectoral problems have emerged. Vacancy rates are extremely high, affordability concerns have intensified, and household mobility is one of the lowest among transition countries. As a result, the government is about to embark on a housing strategy, one that seeks to address the emerging issues with a particular emphasis on how this sector's functioning interacts with and affects the broader economy. This rapid assessment of Bulgaria's housing sector attempts to inform the country's forthcoming strategy. It brings together information on how the sector has performed, and relies upon the international experience, and particularly the experience of other transition economies, to set the stage for the prospective Strategy's deeper probe. Bulgaria followed a Soviet style planning approach that created one of the world's most over industrialized economies. In following this approach, it expanded many cities to service what are now bankrupt heavy industries. The result is that today the employment prospects in many locations remain dim, particularly where state-owned factories of the old regime have closed. This has resulted in massive population shifts, with some villages and towns facing complete abandonment. The country has a large ageing population, and is also experiencing one of the world's sharpest reductions in population. Population has declined by almost 20 percent since 1989, and this trend is likely to intensify over the next two decades. 2017-10-24T21:33:30Z 2017-10-24T21:33:30Z 2017-06 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/776551508491315626/Bulgaria-Housing-sector-assessment-final-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28563 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Urban Study Economic & Sector Work Europe and Central Asia Bulgaria
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	HOUSING CONSTRUCTION SOCIETY FINANCE GROWTH POLICY URBANIZATION INSTITUTIONS POVERTY HOUSING FINANCE AFFORDABILITY
spellingShingle	HOUSING CONSTRUCTION SOCIETY FINANCE GROWTH POLICY URBANIZATION INSTITUTIONS POVERTY HOUSING FINANCE AFFORDABILITY World Bank Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Bulgaria
description	Bulgaria's housing sector provides a window into the broader issues of the country's social, and economic transformation. This process has been difficult, and, as was the case in many transition countries, one of the main problem areas has been the housing sector. While the government has played an active role in reforming the housing sector since 2004, and continued with initiatives to improve energy efficiency in residential buildings, new sectoral problems have emerged. Vacancy rates are extremely high, affordability concerns have intensified, and household mobility is one of the lowest among transition countries. As a result, the government is about to embark on a housing strategy, one that seeks to address the emerging issues with a particular emphasis on how this sector's functioning interacts with and affects the broader economy. This rapid assessment of Bulgaria's housing sector attempts to inform the country's forthcoming strategy. It brings together information on how the sector has performed, and relies upon the international experience, and particularly the experience of other transition economies, to set the stage for the prospective Strategy's deeper probe. Bulgaria followed a Soviet style planning approach that created one of the world's most over industrialized economies. In following this approach, it expanded many cities to service what are now bankrupt heavy industries. The result is that today the employment prospects in many locations remain dim, particularly where state-owned factories of the old regime have closed. This has resulted in massive population shifts, with some villages and towns facing complete abandonment. The country has a large ageing population, and is also experiencing one of the world's sharpest reductions in population. Population has declined by almost 20 percent since 1989, and this trend is likely to intensify over the next two decades.
format	Report
author	World Bank
author_facet	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
title_short	Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
title_full	Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
title_fullStr	Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
title_full_unstemmed	Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment
title_sort	bulgaria housing sector assessment
publisher	Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/776551508491315626/Bulgaria-Housing-sector-assessment-final-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28563
_version_	1764467155906068480

Bulgaria Housing Sector Assessment

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