Transition Factors in Former Communist Countries' Property Markets

Purpose - The article examines to what extent there are still transition factors influencing the property markets in the former Communist countries. When transition began over 20 years ago, there were clear differences from market economies as a direct consequence of their history in terms of institutions, property rights, approaches to markets, business organisation, laws, and physical forms of built environment. The article examines the extent of convergence with market economies and whether transition economies can still be regarded as a distinct group in terms of their property markets.Design/methodology/approach - The article takes a wide range of data, including that from the World Bank, World Economic Forum, Bertelsmann, Jones Lang LaSalle, UNDP, European Mortgage Federation, and Transparency International, and compares transition economies with non-transition economies of similar level of development to see if there remain distinct 'transition' differences.Findings - The initial findings indicate convergence under the influence of the EU, World Bank and FAO but also differences from market economies in areas such as property market transparency, strength of property rights and land governance.Research limitations/implications - There is a need for better quality data on transition countries' property markets. Practical implications - The differences suggest that transition economies continue to require specific policies for the development of their property markets.Originality/value - Whilst there have been studies of 'transition' factors generally in economies, there have not been ones that look specifically at property markets.