The issue of transferability has been for a long period in the centre of the academic activities and political debates, as well. It has evolved into a major topic, useful for researchers, stakeholders and practitioners at all levels. And parallel to the growing role of the European Union, as the process of Europeanization has speeded up, the question, how and what type of knowledge, policies and practices can be transferred, in what case a homogeneous European policy can be enacted, and what circumstances require separate regulations, has become more and more relevant.
Narrowing the topic down, we can say that transferability has been very important with regard to the rehabilitation of large housing estates in the European Union. These estates were largely built at the same time in different countries, and have started to show relatively similar problems mainly caused by social problems and physical decay. Sooner or later almost all of them arrive to a pivotal moment, when, in order to hinder the further decay, major refurbishments have to be carried out. Many of them have already been fully or partially renovated; many are undergoing refurbishment currently and even more have reached a point, where the time for some major reconstructions has come.
So, as a consequence of the many similarities regarding the causes and the circumstances of physical decay and social problems in these estates, transferability has become a crucial factor in designing the policies of the refurbishment of large housing estates in most old member states of the European Union. Here knowledge, experiences and policies have been exchanged, and with more or less success adapted to the local circumstances. Most likely the importance of transferability will grow in the future, as the new member states begin to plan or to execute their own panel refurbishment programs. Especially, as in the former socialist countries, there is still little expertise regarding the rehabilitation of large-scale housing estates, despite the fact that these estates occupy a large share (between 20-40%) of the housing market in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.