The aim of the article is an analysis of changes affecting the financial affordability of rental and owner-occupied housing over the course of the economic transformation in the Czech Republic. To evaluate housing affordability the authors used housing expenditures-to-income ratios and data files from the Czech Statistical Office. The objective of this article is also to draw attention to the need to modify standard indicators when measuring housing affordability in countries in transition. In this regard the authors particularly note the huge differences in affordability ratios between households living in the so-called 'privileged' and households living in the 'unprivileged' housing market sectors.