COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNAL SERVICES OF RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN

Subject: economic development of housing and communal services is directly connected with implementation of the housing policy of the country, which is of great importance for the construction industry, the economy and the population. The deplorable state of utility networks and structures of resource-holding systems in Russia and Kazakhstan, inherited from the Soviet Union, basically did not meet the requirements of a sustainable and proper quality of provision of communal services. After acquiring independence in Russia and Kazakhstan, as in other post-Soviet countries, housing and communal services (housing and utilities) reform was implemented, massive privatization of the housing stock was carried out, which resulted in formation of a qualitatively new housing relations. At the same time, the past period has revealed certain disproportions in the development of housing relations, and as a result, a lot of problems have accumulated in the housing and communal sector that need to be addressed. In this regard, the relevance of the study aimed at conducting a comparative analysis of the development and the state of the housing and communal services of these countries is justified. The article assesses the current state and trends in the development of housing and communal services in Russia and Kazakhstan. This research was carried out within the framework of the scientific project APО05134552 «Economic evaluation of investment projects for modernization of housing and communal services of the Republic of Kazakhstan». Research objectives: conducting a comparative analysis of the development and condition of housing and communal services in Russia and Kazakhstan, and identifying problems related to the housing reform implemented in these countries and modernization of communal infrastructure. Materials and methods: the study used statistical data on the state of the housing stock and housing and communal services provided by the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation and the Statistics Agency of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This scientific study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of government programs implemented in the housing and communal services sector was based on the methods of analysis, induction, deduction, comparative and dialectical-logical approaches. Results: the assessment of the state of housing and communal services in Russia and Kazakhstan is given by the indicators assembled into the groups of the main sub-sectors of the housing and communal services - housing sub-sector and communal services sub-sector - for the 2010-2016 time period. Economic evaluation of the development of housing and communal services was based on the development of a set of quality indicators: 1) the proportion of emergency housing stock in the total area of the entire housing stock; 2) provision of the housing stock with the types of amenities (water supply, water disposal, heating, gas or electric stoves); 3) the level of housing provision for population; 4) accident rate in the networks; 5) loss of resources in the networks (water and heat). Conclusions: in the course of the study, it became possible to identify problematic issues that hinder the more successful development of the housing and communal sector in the analyzed countries. The conducted studies justify the need for sectoral reforms and an integrated system for assessing the development of housing and communal services in accordance with strategic policy and targeted state programs.