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

doi:10.1080/12265934.2019.1709534

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

dc.contributor.author	Seitz, William
dc.date.accessioned	2021-06-15T16:45:09Z
dc.date.available	2021-06-15T16:45:09Z
dc.date.issued	2020-01-03
dc.description.abstract	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 of the capital, Nur-Sultan. The findings show that the two urban centers of Almaty and Nur-Sultan 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 Nur-Sultan 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 imply that 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 Nur-Sultan, where rental housing is most prevalent. The findings suggest that high rates of home ownership and the high cost-of-living in cities leads to exclusion of lower-income households and restrains economic growth.	en
dc.identifier.citation	International Journal of Urban Sciences
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/35756
dc.identifier.issn	1226-5934
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/35756
dc.publisher	Taylor and Francis
dc.rights	CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
dc.subject	URBANIZATION
dc.subject	URBAN HOUSING
dc.subject	DOMESTIC MOBILITY
dc.title	Urbanization in Kazakhstan	en
dc.title.subtitle	Desirable Cities, Unaffordable Housing, and the Missing Rental Market	en
dc.type	Journal Article	en
dc.type	Article de journal	fr
dc.type	Artículo de revista	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.associatedcontent	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/12265934.2019.1709534 Journal website (version of record)	en
okr.date.disclosure	2021-01-03
okr.date.doiregistration	2025-05-06T11:11:30.133165Z
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Journal Article
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.externalcontent	External Content
okr.identifier.doi	10.1080/12265934.2019.1709534
okr.identifier.report	161835
okr.journal.nbpages	135-66
okr.language.supported	en
okr.peerreview	Academic Peer Review
okr.region.administrative	Europe and Central Asia
okr.region.country	Kazakhstan
okr.topic	Urban Development::Urban Economic Development
okr.topic	Urban Development::Urban Housing
okr.topic	Urban Development::Urban Poverty
okr.volume	25(Sup 1)