He That Hath to Him Shall be Given : Housing Privatization in Budapest after State Socialism

The article investigates the post-state-socialist transition in Budapest, Hungary and its implication to the privatization of state-owned houses and discusses the relation between housing privatization to transition debate. Furthermore, the article describes at length the process of privatization in Budapest and reveals the relationship between privatization and housing inequality. The article also compares the results to a similar housing survey conducted in Moscow, Russia. The article seeks to explain the characteristic trajectories of the post-state-socialist housing transition. Housing privatization is the main element of the transition in the urban context; it demolishes the material basis of state socialist housing arrangements, and signals the end of the state's role as dominant landlord – a peculiarity of state socialist urban phenomena. Ownership change, in the way it has been accomplished, polarizes the chances of former tenants. This is so because housing privatization is marked by continuity with state socialist urban arrangements, and is bound to increase housing inequalities. To substantiate the argument, the article relates housing privatization to the transition debate; provides a brief narrative of the process in Budapest; and scrutinizes the relationship between privatization and inequality in housing by examining quantitative evidence from a detailed Budapest housing survey.