Research On The Reform Of The Housing Security System In Russia

As the model of public ownership of housing security has difficulty in meeting the housing needs of the general public,the Soviet government determined to start the market-oriented reform of the housing system in the 1980 s.After the disintegration of the Soviet Union,Russia abandoned the government's free-supplied housing security system and began to implement a large-scale privatization of housing.To make sure all residents benefit from the privatization,the parliament of the Russian Federation issued the "Housing Privatization Law" in 1991,according to which each Russian citizen has the right but for only once to enjoy the free privatization of housing.Unfortunately,although the Russian government tried to protect all citizens' housing rights through the Privatization Law,the effect is far from being satisfactory.Housing privatization not only exacerbated the housing difficulties of low-income groups,but also posed challenge to the ordinary people's housing affordability.The main reasons are as follows: The reform of housing privatization makes the government less willing to increase the affordable housing and housing public services spending and caused the substantial reduce of financial investment in the area of housing guarantee,and by this the construction scale of new public housing has also sharply contracted.At the same time,serious ruble devaluation and price hikes have led to the rise of price of estates,which is far beyond the ordinary citizens' capacity to purchase estate.Therefore,it is difficult for them to improve housing conditions by means of purchasing estate.In addition,Russia has substantially reduced the government subsidies in housing utilities and emphasized residents' responsibilities in this area,in other words,whether the housing has been privatized,the Russian residents are required to pay exorbitant housing repairs,maintenance and other related costs.Thus,the vast majority of ordinary Russians did not enjoy the practical benefits of housing privatization and their housing conditions are not improved,therefore,the housing problem has become the focus of social conflict in Russia.In this occasion,the Russian government made continuous reflections of its reform orientation,path and theory.As for the drawbacks brought with the over-prioritization and market-orientated reform,the government and its experts make consensus that the government should take the responsibility of making rules regulating the economic activity,constructing the economic organization system,monitoring the market entities' economic activities,making social-economic policies and guaranteeing their effective operation.So the Russian government's basic task is decided as follows:(1)to found a law framework and the monitoring system and regulate the government's functions and power through legislation;(2)to make sure the coordination of housing system reform and other social reforms;(3)to incorporate private enterprises into the housing development through tax privileges to invest in the housing security and public services.Thus,Russia has built its housing financial security system,based on “Public financial” theory,supported by perfect legal and diversified financial system,which has played an important role in improving housing affordability and the level of housing security.Since China's reform and opening,the housing system reform has been at the center of reforms,although it makes some achievements,many contradictions and problems are still not resolved.In recent years,with the contradiction between continuous growth of house price and slowdown in the increase of residents' income gradually intensified,the disadvantage of the housing system reform is also increasingly apparent and the housing difficulties,particularly for low-income groups become an important reason for stunting China's social harmony and stable development.Therefore,it is of significance in promoting the housing system reform in our country by exploring he housing system reform in Russia systematically,making a detailed analysis of its advantages and drawbacks and drawing lessons from their experiencesIn this paper,making a departure from the financial protect and support,the researcher tries to solve the following questions: first,why did Russia carry out the housing system reform? Second,how did Russia construct the legal foundation for its reform of housing financial system? Third,how to locate the functions and role of government in Russian reform of the housing system? Fourth,what is the operation mechanism of the Russian housing finance system and its related methods? Fifth,how will Russia choose the future path of reform? For these questions,the results are as follows:First,the reasons for Russian reform of the housing system are explored.For instance,the model of public ownership of housing security has led to many housing problems,such as public housing shortages,residents' over-reliance on housing welfare,unfair distribution of housing,long waiting time,etc.,it has not only increased the government financial burden,but also is difficult to solve the residents' housing dilemma;thereafter large-scale implementation of the reform of housing privatization,further aggravates the difficulty for residents to improve their housing conditions.Second,Russian housing security system is constructed based on perfect legal framework.In the new constitution in 1993 protecting housing right for its citizens has been listed as one of the basic obligation of government.The new constitution clearly stipulates that government should give policy and financial support for housing security.In order to ensure the housing security,Russian government has passed a complete set of laws and regulations within constitutional bound,protecting the residents' housing rights.The housing security system incorporates Constitution of Russian,Housing act and The Special Housing Planning of Russian Federation.Constitution of Russian protects the basic housing rights of citizens.Housing act is dividing responsibility and jurisdiction at all levels of governments,and the function of The Special Housing Planning of Russian Federation is to set up housing development plan for the local government.All of these laws and regulations provide a better theoretical basis and institutional framework for Russian housing security system.Third,the government's protecting and coordinating function is emphasized.At the beginning of marketing transition,Russian follow neoliberal economics theory whose core is the monetarism.The government believes in the allocation function of free market,so they implement the policy of “small government ”or “weak government” in order to reduce the impact of government in economic development,in order to prevent the adverse effects.As a result,the great depression and the depressing economic growth happened.Many Russian economists and politicians think if the blind natural market forces were allowed to control the development of housing authority,low income groups would be hindered to get access to the security housing;moreover,social division and unfairness will become more severe in the field of housing security under the unbalanced income distribution.In the reform of housing financial supporting system,the function of government is to regulate housing market with the laws and the price mechanism by performing the financial security function in the field of Housing and Public utilities through budget appropriation,loan and the budget investment,and by realizing the regulation and management function through tax,financial supervision and housing distribution.Fourth,the mechanism of Russian housing financial security system is discussed.Housing security is one of the precedence development directions of financial budget.Government promotes the development of housing department by planning housing program and appropriating fund to achieve the goal of policies.At present,Russian has formed a multilevel system of housing security,which includes social housing,private and cooperative housing,special housing,rental housing and affordable housing with policy character.Based on different characteristics of building and investing security housing,Russia provides different budget models for security housing,that is,to promote the development of housing security through diversity financial fund.Besides,the Russian government promotes the development of housing financial market through founding housing mortgage company,and launching mortgage products(including social mortgage for low income groups)to satisfy the mortgage ways of all income groups.In addition,Russia has actively introduced in new financial investment patterns.On the one hand,encouraging public-Private-Partnership(PPP)pattern in the field of housing.The concession agreement in the form of public-private partnerships,the contract of life cycle and the special purpose enterprises have becoming the effective measures for government to solve the shortage of budget funds and to promote diversified the housing financing investment.On the other hand,in order to play the leading role of the market mechanism,the Russian government also supported the mortgage loan stock company to innovative housing finance products.Based on the above analysis and research,we can draw the following conclusions: firstly,the housing finance security system reform is regulated by the Constitution of Russia,and promoted by a set of legal system;secondly,the housing security is decided as the priority of the country's development by clarifying the government's function;Russia provides enough and effective support financially and institutionally in the development of housing and public services;third,Russia solves the funds difficulty effectively by the reform of way in financial investment,incorporating more financial sources,innovating financial instruments.The innovations are mainly reflected in: firstly,innovation of this paper is reflected in from the perspective of choosing financial supporting role in the housing security system,starting from the government's fulfillment of functions of public finance,by comparing multiple means of financial support and security,we clarify various types of budget support modes of affordable housing,and make a deep analysis of the housing security system for Russian low-income groups.Secondly,the paper is based on the current assessment index in Russia and combines the international housing development indicators to construct the evaluation indicators system of Russian housing finance security in the area of operation results,including comprehensive index,national housing indicators of completing obligations,housing mortgage credit indicators,housing construction indicator and indicator of housing utilities development.By setting five basic indicators and constructing effectiveness evaluation system to evaluate the methods and patterns of Russian financial security as well as the effect of operational mechanism,is the biggest innovation in this paper,and this method can also be applied to evaluate the housing policy in our country.Finally,the development of Russian practice for public-private cooperation mechanism in the entire housing security areas,including the constitution of relevant laws on public-private cooperation and the establishment of specialized agencies for public-private cooperation,promoting innovation of housing finance products through public-private cooperation,can bring some thinking in terms of deepening the reform of Chinese housing security,particularly the solution of financial problems in Chinese housing security construction.The limitation of this paper is: the housing security is complex concerning with the political,economic and social areas.The reform of housing security system in Russia has made achievements,however,the difficulty in the paper here lies in a lack of comprehensive and proper assessment of its effectiveness,and whether it can be learned from in the housing security reform in China,to which the future research can be oriented.