Since 1 990, moreover, about 4.2 million units have been modernized and renovated in the new states with federal financial assistance. Repair and modernization of existing housing is the main objective of government policy in the east, where much of the housing stock is still in markedly poorer condition than housing in the west due to the failings of the former GDR regime. A further priority in the new federal states is the promotion of owner-occupied housing, which was systematically repressed in the former GDR for ideological reasons.