Social housing in the Czech Republic in a comparative context

The first part of this article analyses the situation of the Czech housing market paying attention to the sector of municipality rental housing. Munic ipality housing could play a role of housing for middle and lower income ho useholds, known as social housing in countries of the European Union. Empha sis is placed on the critical evaluation of the current state, as the "soci al effectiveness" of this kind of housing is very low in the Czech environm ent. The differences between market rents in private rental sector and cont rolled rents in municipal housing are shown, and the distribution of profit s from rent regulation among lower and higher income households is describe d. The second part of the article is formed by a comparative description of different social housing systems in the EU countries, showing the variety of technical and legislative means used to assure fulfilment of given socia l and economic goals.