Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market

Kazakhstan's cities are hubs of economic opportunity and prosperity. But despite the government's ambitious targets, the pace of urbanization remains slow. This study focuses on two key constraints: (i) the very high cost of living in...

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Main Author:	Seitz, William
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	URBANIZATION URBAN HOUSING RENTAL MARKETS LIVING COSTS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/956811531481933385/Urbanization-in-Kazakhstan-desirable-cities-unaffordable-housing-and-the-missing-rental-marke http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30003

id	okr-10986-30003
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-300032022-05-21T06:14:44Z Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market Seitz, William URBANIZATION URBAN HOUSING RENTAL MARKETS LIVING COSTS Kazakhstan's cities are hubs of economic opportunity and prosperity. But despite the government's ambitious targets, the pace of urbanization remains slow. This study focuses on two key constraints: (i) the very high cost of living in Kazakhstan's cities, and (ii) the near absence of a rental housing market outside the capital, Astana. The findings show that the two urban centers of Almaty and Astana are 190 and 240 percent more expensive to live in than the national average. Housing is the primary driver of the disparity: after adjusting for inflation, housing costs tripled in Astana and quadrupled in Almaty between 2001 and 2015. As a result, housing costs for the local population in these areas are more unaffordable than famously exclusive cities such as San Francisco and Vancouver. Demand elasticities from 2015 imply that in the current environment, rural and low-income households are especially unlikely to relocate to high-priced areas where employment prospects are better and average incomes are higher. Regional convergence in wage rates remains slow, but appears to be proceeding most quickly in Astana, where rental housing is most prevalent. The findings suggest that high rates of home ownership and the high cost of living in cities lead to exclusion of lower-income households and restrain economic growth. 2018-07-16T16:04:46Z 2018-07-16T16:04:46Z 2018-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/956811531481933385/Urbanization-in-Kazakhstan-desirable-cities-unaffordable-housing-and-the-missing-rental-marke http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30003 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8530 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Kazakhstan
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	URBANIZATION URBAN HOUSING RENTAL MARKETS LIVING COSTS
spellingShingle	URBANIZATION URBAN HOUSING RENTAL MARKETS LIVING COSTS Seitz, William Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Kazakhstan
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8530
description	Kazakhstan's cities are hubs of economic opportunity and prosperity. But despite the government's ambitious targets, the pace of urbanization remains slow. This study focuses on two key constraints: (i) the very high cost of living in Kazakhstan's cities, and (ii) the near absence of a rental housing market outside the capital, Astana. The findings show that the two urban centers of Almaty and Astana are 190 and 240 percent more expensive to live in than the national average. Housing is the primary driver of the disparity: after adjusting for inflation, housing costs tripled in Astana and quadrupled in Almaty between 2001 and 2015. As a result, housing costs for the local population in these areas are more unaffordable than famously exclusive cities such as San Francisco and Vancouver. Demand elasticities from 2015 imply that in the current environment, rural and low-income households are especially unlikely to relocate to high-priced areas where employment prospects are better and average incomes are higher. Regional convergence in wage rates remains slow, but appears to be proceeding most quickly in Astana, where rental housing is most prevalent. The findings suggest that high rates of home ownership and the high cost of living in cities lead to exclusion of lower-income households and restrain economic growth.
format	Working Paper
author	Seitz, William
author_facet	Seitz, William
author_sort	Seitz, William
title	Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
title_short	Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
title_full	Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
title_fullStr	Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
title_full_unstemmed	Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market
title_sort	urbanization in kazakhstan : desirable cities, unaffordable housing, and the missing rental market
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/956811531481933385/Urbanization-in-Kazakhstan-desirable-cities-unaffordable-housing-and-the-missing-rental-marke http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30003
_version_	1764471029286043648

Urbanization in Kazakhstan : Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market

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