
Matthias Bernt, "The Commodification Gap: Gentrification and Public Policy in London, Berlin and St. Petersburg" (Wiley, 2022)
New Books in Economics
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Housing in Russia - The Importance of Property
The main thing about gentrification in St. Petersburg and in Russian, about housing in Russia in general I think is the immense fragmentation of property. In Russia housing until 1991 was a state owned. All housing belonged to the state in the communist system. After 1991, housing was privatized but this privatization was voluntarily so residents had to apply to own their apartment at a nominal fee. The effect of this was an immense fragmented of property situations. If you go to a normal house, a normal multifamily residential building in the center of St. Petersburg, you would usually find five different classes of residents. They are as Russian scholars saw me now called it a forgotten minority in the regulation system about housing
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