The term 'housing combine' looks like it could be a translation of the term ' домостроительный комбинат' that could be more accurately translated as 'house construction combine'. If this is really the case (DSK-2, a subsidiary of the Quartz Holding is a modern construction company that has roots in such a combine from the Soviet era), then the 'housing/construction combine' was simply an organisation (I don't use the term 'enterprise' as such entities were state-owned) responsible for mass construction of the housing buildings, usually apartment blocks and later apartment towers. Such buildings were usually build in concrete slab technology and the 'combine' consisted of all the necessary facilities allowing of such construction: planning and design unit, a concrete slab plant(s), a metalworking plant where the steel frames and reinforcing elements were created, construction equipment depot(s), transport base, construction personnel and, in some cases, also smaller factories producing all necessary equipment used in construction, such as thermal insulation, water and sewage pipes, electric cables, pumps, meters etc. In short, a 'construction combine' was an entity that technically was able to single-handedly build an entire district or even city worth of apartment buildings. For example, construction combine in Almaty was able to build roughly 1300 flats or about 30 apartment blocks in 1961 and and about 8000 flats in 1980. Although the construction of common houses was the main focus of the operation, construction combines were also responsible for building other urban buildings, such as schools, kindergartens, shops etc.

Such combines became prevalent in early 1950's after the acts of Central Committee of the CPSU concerning the mass construction of the housing units (1954-1957) what required fast establishment of the several hundred factories producing concrete panels and, subsequently, whole combines allowing fast construction of entire housing districts to fulfill goals set by the First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev (hence 'khrushchevka' a common name for such an early apartment block).