Contributing to new UNECE Guidelines on Condominium Management

Habitat for Humanity contributed to the new UNECE Guidelines on the Management and Ownership of Condominium Housing thanks to being part of Real Estate Market Advisory Group.

UNECE Real Estate Market Advisory Group consists of specialists assisting the Committee on Housing and Land Management and the Working Party on Land Administration to develop stronger housing real estate markets. Its activities include discussion of energy efficient housing, affordable and social housing, its financing and others.

Being a member of this group, we were able to contribute to reviewing of original document of Guidelines on Condominium Ownership of Housing for Countries in Transition published in 2003. While this original guideline was mostly targeting the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the new Guidelines on the Management and Ownership of Condominium Housing focuses on all the UNECE countries; including Western Europe, the United States and Canada. Successfully updated publication of guidelines was formally approved on October 4th, 2018 during the 79th session of the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management held in Geneva.

Throughout the last year, this small group of specialists was meeting regularly and discussed many challenges not only of Central and Eastern European region. HFHI  comments and messages touched exclusively the CEE and CIS countries based on our experience and expertise in this region. Thanks to our REELIH project and regional advocacy done in relation to it, we took this chance to push our messages and provided professional advice.

As the cornerstones for our claims we used three documents developed in regards to REELIH project and Visegrad Four project in Armenia done by HFH Armenia:

HOW TO IMPROVE RESIDENTIAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE AND CIS:
POLICY DISCUSSION BRIEF FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

ANALYSIS OF SUBSIDY SCHEMES AIMING TO SUPPORT ENERGY EFFICIENT RENOVATION OF MULTI-FAMILY BUILDINGS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE:
LESSONS FOR ARMENIA AND BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

LEGAL-REGULATORY SOLUTIONS FOR STRENGHTENING CIVIC INVOLVEMENT IN CONDOMINIUM MANAGEMENT IN ARMENIA:
UTILIZING THE KNOWLEDGE WEALTH FROM VISEGRAD STATES AND UKRAINE

 

Rapid rate of privatization of public housing, lack of maintenance and rising energy costs led to the emergence of low-income homeowners phenomenon and their inability to cope with the situation. Moreover, the collective decision-making of new homeowners brought other complications, that ended up with slow deterioration of multi-apartment buildings.

 

Hence, our main contributions to the updated condominium management guidelines included:

• Historical background of CEE and CIS countries in regards to transition to private ownership as well as the need of adapting new legislative frameworks
• Highlighting the need of subsidy accessibility to homeowner associations (HOAs) and the cooperation with banks
• Donor initiatives and grant schemes for HOAs, so that its formation becomes inevitable
• Identifying possible sources of funding for low income homeowners, including solutions for energy poor and green financing
• Supporting long-term energy-efficiency investments to reduce energy bills
• Providing with the assistance for preparing and implementing renovation process for HOAs
• Promoting the international cooperation, knowledge exchange and awareness raising in a global community of stakeholders

Find more information about condominium management guidelines here.

Find the press release about new publication here.