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Tiraspol, PMR's capital: Throughout the country, 74% of all houses and apartments are privately owned by their occupants

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - It is a democratic success story and a lesson in grassroots capitalism: Home ownership rates have passed 74% for the first time ever in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie, reports news agency IA Regnum quoting a high-ranking housing official from the PMR government.

" - 74% of the residents of the capital have already privatized their housing," says Irina Mortohan, head of Tiraspol's housing administration. "The state guarantees active assistance in the improvement of housing conditions, and this includes rendering aid on obtainin housing credits and mortgages at preferential rates."

Thanks to a recent wave of Western style market reforms and an expansion of privatization efforts, home ownership rates in the capital of the unrecognized country now exceed those of neighboring Ukraine and Moldova. They are also higher than most other European countries, and beat home ownership rates in the United States as well.

In the United States, the home ownership rate for 2005 - the latest year for which data is available - was 68.9%, down slightly from the record high of 69.0% in 2004. Despite being lower than Pridnestrovie's, the homeownership rate in the United States is among the highest in the world.

Europe as a whole lags behind the United States, although almost two-thirds of European households are now home owners. Among European Union member states, only Bulgaria exceeds Tiraspol, PMR, in the number of owner-occupied housing: With almost 80% homeownership, four out of five Bulgarian families own the home that they live in.

Building a European middleclass

Eight private sector banks in Pridnestrovie provide homeowners with mortgages under a modern, Western-style mortgage law. With private property being a policy priority, government and non-profit organizations work closely together to increase homeownership opportunities. In the process, a new European property owning middle class is being created.

" - We have a government which is clearly committed to market reforms. They are doing it, and not just talking about it. This benefits the people, so it was no surprise that popularity levels of the Igor Smirnov presidency gave him a landslide in the last presidential elections of December 2006," says Gabriel Culianu, 37, whose privately-owned three bedroom condo overlooks the Dniester river.

" - Moldova likes to smear and accuse us of being communists. Helloooo? Anybody home? Get real for a change, and just look at the facts. It is time to smell the coffee: We have some of the highest rates of private property and homeownership in the world. A new and prosperous middleclass is being created, and all Moldova can do is to repeat the same old saw about how we're a communist blah-blah-blah," explains Culianu. Despite belonging to the ethnic Moldovan minority, he supports independence for Pridnestrovie and has no wish to see the place where he was born become part of Moldova.

" - Of course, the outdated Communism-accusation is just the pot calling the kettle black. The last time I looked, the only country in Europe where the Communist Party is in power is the Republic of Moldova. Reforms in Moldova is about paying lip service to an ideal, nothing more. When it comes to actually following through and carrying out their promises, it all gets bogged down in a hopeless mess of corruption and ineptitude," Culianu says.

" - But not so here. We are doers, not talkers. And one thing is for sure: We are better off on our own. We will never, ever become part of Moldova, so forget it once and for all. That particular train already left the station a long, long time ago."

Visitors to Pridnestrovie, which is informally also called Transnistria or Transdniester, have compared the 'de facto' independent country with a Russified version of Luxembourg. It is more prosperous, clean and socially coherent than Moldova. With 555,000 inhabitants, it has a population which is comparable to that of Montenegro, the latest member country to be admitted to the United Nations. Pridnestrovie's population, twice the size of Iceland's, is majority Slav with a minority of a little over 30% who are ethnic Moldovans. Despite their ethnicity, even the Moldovans who live in Pridnestrovie prefer independence, and voted overwhelmingly against unification with neighboring Moldova in a 17 September 2006 independence referendum.

See also:
» Pridnestrovie per-capita GDP up 17.3% despite economic warfare [1]

On the web:
» Bank “Ipotechniy” (mortgage bank) [2]