HOUSING AFFORDABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR THE POPULATION OF NOVOSIBIRSK REGION

It is well known that housing is the key element of human life sustainment. Along with the needs for food and clothes, the housing need belongs to the primary ones. This is why the problem of housing affordability is permanently relevant. It is emphasized by the fact that the Russian Federation housing system reform, based on the principle of state housing provision, was one of the key elements of the transition to the market economy. It is obvious that the success of the reform largely depends on how the model which is being implemented meets the needs of the majority of the population. In the process of the housing system development based on the marketing principles of housing provision, the need for it takes the form of the housing demand. Housing affordability is determined by the financial opportunities of the population to buy housing. So, the issue of identifying major tendencies of housing affordability changes is becoming more timely and important. It has a significant influence on the implementation of the state housing policy. There are different methodologies of affordability index computation, each of which corresponds to the objectives of the research. The residential mortgage development has required the analysis of population opportunities to repay ( service) loans and the opportunity to pay the initial payment. The calculations for the population of Novosibirsk Region, given in the article, were made following the methodology of S.R. Khachatryan, E. Yu. Faerman, and others. The obtained results of affordability index computation showed that housing mortgage made the purchase of economy class housing affordable for the majority of the population regardless of the fact that their level of income is insufficient for the purchase. Nevertheless further expansion of the private housing sector by providing the opportunities for low-income families to buy their own housing is hardly efficient, since they do not have financial resources for its maintenance. Social and commercial apartment building renting with the support of regional and municipal authorities is a solution to their housing problem.