The market position of prototype houses in socialist housing estates

Abstract

The state-socialist housing estates, which account for nearly one-third of the dwellings in Budapest, represent the most homogeneous segment of the housing stock. Differences in their prestige are predominantly explained by urban geographical characteristics – primarily their location. However, the study focuses on whether there are other physical and spatial factors that might lead to significant differences in the housing market. For this purpose, the most frequently used prototype design of six architectural archetypes were examined in Budapest. These multi-storey condominium designs were implemented over several decades in housing estates of varying sizes and locations, which gives the possibility of analysing the impact of physical and spatial characteristics. The research focuses on the significance of differences between individual prototype houses, including the newer and older types, period of construction, building height, and the size of the housing estate, which effect the housing prices.

A statistical analysis of housing prices per square meters highlights the overriding importance of location, although the influence of other factors is also significant. Although the differences between the prototype houses are not significant, and no type is consistently more expensive than the others, the height of the buildings has effect. Between houses with the same physical urban form (e.g., point, slab, structural), the high-rise buildings are generally slightly cheaper than low-rise ones. The construction period does not have significant impact on the value of flats. There is no evidence that either older or newer prototypes are more expensive, nor the older or newer buildings of the same prototypes. The residential environment namely the location in certain type of urban zones has no strong effect on the market value of the prototypes. A special characteristic of residential environment, the size of the housing estate (and, by extension, the availability or lack of infrastructure) has no significant effect on housing prices.

In order to excluding the role of location within the city, we compared different prototypes within certain housing estates. There was no clear connection between housing types and market prices, thought there were some differences between them. One of these is the location within the estate, residential buildings in less favourable parts are cheaper than others. Further research is needed to explain the differences within the housing estates, as the physical and architectural characteristics of residential buildings are not the main factors.