2.1.1. Australia

affordable housing and they determine it by different levels of eligibility of a household, their income, their social status, and other elements (Susilawati & Armitage, 2010). Thus, this section limits the range of the research to the official definitions from various countries and the European Union. Also, it investigates how the Romanian government defines affordable housing. Therefore, as a foundation for this investigation, it is necessary to understand these different interpretations of the topic and compare it to the one in Romania. This helps to contextualise the study and narrow its focus.

As Vale (2014) implies, the general understanding is that affordable housing refers to the type of housing that is available to households with medium and lower incomes, but which at the same time, is of a fair and satisfactory standard of quality and location (Vale, 2014). In addition, for it to be considered affordable, the housing costs do not have to be over the capabilities of the inhabitants (Vale, 2014). The typology of dwellings varies and can include, subsidised housing, temporary or transitional housing, shelters, mortgage bought or private rented homes (Jones et al, 1997). One of the main reasons for choosing Australia, UK, and USA, is that these countries focus on providing affordable housing and have certain eligibility systems (Domer,2014). Beside this, they are from different areas of the world, but have similar political systems (Tsenkova and Polanska, 2014). The European Union represents the common interests of 28 countries, including Romania. The Union also targets the aspects of housing and affordability and some of these states, such as Poland, The Czech Republic or Bulgaria, have similar political, historical, and social contexts (Tsenkova and Polanska, 2014). Whilst other countries from around the world also have affordable housing policies and schemes, their context may differ from the one in Romania (Domer,2014). That is why, Australia, UK, USA and the EU were chosen.

2.1.1. Australia

According to the Centre for Affordable Housing, the expression is sometimes used in connection or mixed with the idea of social housing but they are not synonyms (CAH, 2015). The Australian government states the difference and explains affordable housing as dealing with a bigger range of households than the ones included in social housing: “Households do not have to be eligible for