Description:Housing plays an important role in a country’s economy and is often an individual’s biggest asset. The availability of housing finance is, therefore, crucial for overall economic development as well as for a household’s welfare and its quality of life. With the large-scale privatization of the housing sector, a need for housing finance systems arose in the UNECE countries with economies in transition. While policy makers have had access to information and policy advice on individual systems, there has so far not been a method for comparing them that would help to determine their suitability for a particular country. This study aims to fill this gap by offering an in-depth analysis of the most common housing finance models in the region.