Few regions have suffered the hardships that have confronted South -eastern Europe throughout the past decade. Whether due to ethnic conflicts or the difficulties associated with the shift from Socialist regimes to democratically governed and market-based economies, regional instabilityhas affected many areas of life, and has had a particularly pronounced impact on the housing and property sectors. Indeed, the region faces an array of severe difficulties related to housing and property issues – growing homelessness, more than a million refugees and displaced persons who are still unable or unwilling to return to their original homes, a dysfunctional housing market in most countries, systematic discrimination against various ethnic groups, in particular the Roma, an expanding informal housing sector and a range of related problems.