Ranking of housing market sustainability in selected European countries

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare housing markets of selected European countries: the Baltic States, Spain and industrialized European countries with special reference to Estonia. The ranking of selected countries is based on concerns about the excessive home ownership which evidently is not consistent with economic development and acts as a barrier to increasing the quality and volume of the housing stock. An integrated analysis of housing market sustainability was performed using Multiple Criteria Decision Making Method (MCDM). A Decision Support System for Housing Sustainability Assessment (DSS-HS) was developed. The analysis of the ranking and assessment results allows recommendations to be made for improving the indicators in order to increase housing market sustainability. The case study presents an example of practical application to three Estonian counties.