European Competition Policy and National Housing Policies: International Implications of the Dutch Case

This contribution explores the relationship between housing policy, which is the responsibility of national governments, and competition policy, including the decision on the legitimacy of state support, which is the responsibility of the European Commission (EC). The paper paints a general picture of EU policy on competition and state support and describes the Dutch social housing system. Attention then turns to the recent intervention by the European Commission in the governance of Dutch social housing and it is asked whether the factors that prompted the intervention exist in other EU member states as well. The analysis shows that this is indeed the case. It is concluded that the intervention of the EC in the Netherlands could become a precedent for other European countries, particularly for those countries that opt against a residualised social rented sector and for a competitive role of social housing providers on the housing market.     

State directed hybridity? – the relationship between non-profit housing organizations and the state in three national contexts

This paper presents results from the first international comparative study of non-profit housing organizations in Australia, England and the Netherlands to engage with panels of organizational leaders. The study uses a ‘modified Delphi method’ with Likert-type scaled surveys, followed by in-depth interviews. The paper introduces the concept of hybridity as a way of understanding the interaction of state, market and community drivers in steering non-profit housing organizations. In all three countries, findings indicate that there are clear limits to independence from continued state influence. In England this takes the form of state-directed cross-subsidy and welfare reform, in Australia business development strategies have had to respond to volatility and reductions in state funding, while in the Netherlands public policy has recently restricted the remit of associations to a low-income niche and reduced commercial involvement. These findings lend support to ‘contested logics’ models of organizational hybridity rather than either ‘out-of-control monstrous hybrids’ or linear privatization models.     

Impacts of contrasting housing policies on low-income households in Australia and the Netherlands

This paper aims to contribute to the debate in comparative housing studies about the significance of national housing policies by considering what can be learnt from analysing the consequences of different policy paths. In particular, the paper looks at the evidence of the long-run impacts of different housing strategies adopted to assist lower-income households in Australia and the Netherlands, using housing affordability as a measure of their impact. Australia is an example of a country that has promoted mass home ownership across the income distribution supplemented by a very small public housing system. In contrast, the Netherlands has relied more on a large and diversified social housing sector. The comparative analysis shows that there are many similarities in the patterns of affordability among low-income households in the two countries despite the use of different policy means. In the past, both countries had good success providing secure and affordable housing for poorer households. Now, lower-income households are experiencing greater affordability problems that are linked to societal changes and the retrenchment of government housing assistance in both cases. However, the study also finds that affordability problems among lower-income households are worse in Australia because of the greater reliance on private housing in that country.     

Why are housing cooperatives successful? Insights from Swiss affordable housing policy

Housing policy is primarily regulated at the municipal level, especially in view of the international trend towards the withdrawal of the national state in this sector. This article examines recent developments in Swiss housing policy in five large cities, and the counter-reactions that are emerging due to an acute housing shortage. Relying on critical literature on housing, we present the main instruments of the Swiss housing policy and empirically analyse the political debates about their implementation. Results show that housing cooperatives are the housing support mechanism that the whole political spectrum can agree on. As the vast majority of cooperatives are non-profit, we observe the puzzling situation where neoliberal processes of state withdrawal in social policies lead to the promotion of a form of housing that is mostly common property-based and decommodified. The reasons behind their success are complex, but basing policies on private initiative rather than public property and targeting the middle class contributes to their popularity.     

The present and future of income‐related housing support: debates in Britain and the Netherlands

This paper examines income‐related housing support in Britain and the Netherlands. It considers the main issues that are at stake in current policy discussions, compares the arguments that are put forward in the two countries and draw conclusions about the future of income‐related housing support. In both Britain and the Netherlands political discussions about the possible introduction of housing vouchers are observed. The most complicated issues are the poverty trap and unemployment trap, and housing consumption incentives. Moral hazard concerns can result in complicated anti‐fraud measures that may add to the burden of administering income‐related support. It is expected that the way in which income‐related housing support schemes in both countries are designed and administered may come under closer scrutiny. Politicians want these schemes to be in tune with the need for labour and housing market mobility, wage flexibility, and the need to bring the public budget under control.     

欧美公共住房制度比较研究及对我国的启示

采取历史研究和比较研究的方法,对欧美国家为保障中低收入群体住房权利实行多年的公共住房制度的异同进行了比较：战后欧美均不约而同实行相当程度的公共住房制度,不同之处是欧洲国家对住房市场的干预较为直接、全面和深入,而美国则采用税收、信贷的形式间接影响房地产市场,实践证明均行之有效。对我国现阶段住区规划与政策的启示是：住房是关系民生的大事,政府不应完全放任市场调节;我国应建立具自己的公共住房制度,改变目前过于依赖市场解决住房供应现状;土地供应模式和开发商为主体的住房生产模式必须改变;采取包括政府直接投资、鼓励社会     

The different faces of private rented housing

The relation between public policy and the private rented sector is usually unclear. The private rented sector often suffers from public policy, although private landlords mostly enjoy fiscal advantages as well. In many European countries, private renting housing has been losing ground. Nevertheless, private rented housing fulfils a number of useful functions in the housing market: as a tenure for urban starters; for the elderly; and for a mobile, well-to-do segment of the population engaged in flexible labour markets. The main lines of seven country profiles are sketched here: (West) Germany, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Canada and the United States. In his comparative contribution at the end of this special issue, Maclennan points out that the private rented sector has indeed declined in many European countries. But he also shows that in countries like the USA, Germany and Sweden the sector has had a broadly constant share since about 1980. In the future, private rented housing will remain an attractive sector, at least for those who are unable to afford owner-occupied housing and those unable to gain access to social housing. Hugo Priemus holds the chair in housing at Delft University of Technology and he is managing director of OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies. Duncan Maclennan is McTaggart professor at the Centre for Housing Research and Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, Great Britain.     

A Survey of Institutional Investors' Attitudes and Perceptions of Residential Property: The Swiss,Dutch and Swedish Cases

This paper provides evidence about institutional investors' attitudes and perceptions of residential property as an investment asset group in three European countries (Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden). These countries stand out, with an extraordinarily large institutional residential ownership, in fact, residential institutional allocation represents about 6 per cent, 2 per cent and 3 per cent of the total institutional investment in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively. Housing is the most important institutional property asset type in Switzerland and the Netherlands, comprising over 52 per cent and 50 per cent of their institutional property portfolios, respectively. In Sweden residential property plays an important, but not dominant role in the domestic institutional property portfolios, representing about 21 per cent of the institutional property holdings. Using a postal survey of representatives of pension funds, insurance companies, property investment and asset management companies the study analyses the attractiveness of residential property in terms of institutional investment goals. The survey examines the institutional investors' perceptions of housing investment, namely with respect to its returns, volatility, inflation hedging, liabilities matching and correlation with shares, bonds and non-residential property. Additionally, the survey looks at the institutional investors' experiences regarding the private rented sector. The survey suggests that investment in residential property equity is likely to be done through larger portfolios, which tend to invest in housing directly. Residential property is seen mainly as an earning asset group able to provide diversification benefits for investors even when portfolios already include non-residential property. The respondents are mainly concerned with rent regulation issues, the lack of well-structured investment vehicles is undoubtedly a less important problem.     

How does increased competition on the housing market affect rents? an empirical study concerning sweden

The aim of the study is to investigate if more competition leads to lower rents on the housing market. Data about the rent level for similar apartments in 30 cities in Sweden were available. Three hypotheses were formulated: (H1) Increased ‘internal’ competition, measured by the market share of the municipal housing company (that dominates the market and is price-leader according to the Swedish system of rent regulation), leads to lower rents. (H2) Increased ‘external’ competition measured by the price level on the market for single-family owner occupied housing, leads to lower rents. (H3) Lower capital expenditure in the municipal housing company leads to lower rents. The statistical analysis showed a strong correlation between the rent level and the level of external competition, but no relation was found for the level of internal competition and the level of capital expenditure. A possible conclusion is that policies that make it easier for households to leave the rental market are important for increasing the pressure on the firms in the rental sector and reducing rents.     

Reconciling Policy Tensions on the Frontlines of Indigenous Housing Provision in Australia: Reflexivity,Resistance and Hybridity

In Australia, significant recent reforms reposition Indigenous housing provision and management in remote and town camp communities under the mainstream public housing model. Two competing discourses surround this shift: a federal discourse of standardisation and state discourses of local responsiveness centred on the introduction of new community engagement processes into Indigenous public housing. This paper reports on qualitative research into the micro-scale of policy implementation to highlight policy-to-practice translation on the frontlines of Indigenous housing. Based on interviews with Indigenous housing stakeholders, this paper argues the capacity to support locally responsive housing management is problematic under the current arrangements. The analytical framework of realist governmentality reveals frontline housing professionals' role in the local resolution of tensions between federal and state policy levers. A focus on agent reflexivity and resistance on the frontline assists in capturing the dynamic (hybrid) identity of Indigenous public housing, as an atypical Australian example of hybridity in social housing.     

Repackaging the poor? Conceptualising neoliberal reforms of social rental housing

This paper considers the need for conceptual renewal in comparative housing research. Since the mid-1990s, Kemeny’s model of ‘unitary’ and ‘dualist’ rental markets and Harloe’s classification of ‘mass’ and ‘residual’ social housing provision have been repeatedly recycled in comparative studies of ‘social’ and ‘public’ housing provision. Amidst international neoliberal policy mobilities, their models based on liberal welfare regimes wield particular power. Conceived during neoliberal cutbacks of public services, Kemeny’s ‘dualist’ rental market and Harloe’s ‘residual’ model of social housing similarly depict state-subsidised rental housing provision as bureaucratic, and targeted to the poor. Despite empirical change, these models are still used to describe liberal welfare regimes, and to theorise international policy convergence. Based on a review of recent market-oriented reforms of state-subsidised rental housing provision in the US, Australia and England; original neoliberal ‘sites of production’, this contribution asks whether these conceptual models still reflect the empirics. Findings diverge from the models, undermining their assumptions about how neoliberal reforms progress.     

Reframing social mix in affordable housing initiatives in Italy and in the Netherlands. Closing the gap between discourses and practices?

European countries are facing rising demand for affordable housing by a widespread and differentiated audience. Both in Italy and in the Netherlands policy-makers and practitioners address this emerging need by implementing new social housing projects targeting diverse social groups – such as students, young households, welfare dependents, and refugees – which results in a fine-grained social mix. This paper discusses the development of these initiatives within wider trends in housing policies and in relation to the domestic debate on social mix in the two countries. Drawing on Magic Mix and Housing Sociale projects as case studies, respectively in the Netherlands and in Italy, we aim to explore and unfold the contemporary meanings and the practices attached to the idea of social mix. In so doing, this paper paves the way for a new conceptualization of social mix in the current post-crisis and hyper-diversified European scenario. We discuss traces of continuity and discontinuity between these forms of social mix and the mainstream idea of tenure mix, which has been a cornerstone of area-based urban renewal policy in many European countries. This paper contributes to the existing literature by offering insights into new practices of social mix in housing sphere.     

Magical or Monstrous? Hybridity in Social Housing Governance

While a growing number of national social housing strategies rely on the work of hybrid entities blending social and commercial tasks, the state/market dualism continues to dominate the conceptual landscape of housing research. This exploratory paper develops a conceptual approach to support research into the role of not-for-profit social entrepreneurs in the housing market. It looks for insights within their ‘hybrid’ status, spanning state and market, and subject to multiple sets of institutional conditions. Four frames of hybrid identity are developed, and then substantiated via a discussion of two different sectors of not-for-profit social entrepreneurs in Australia and the Netherlands. As the growth trajectory of each sector is traced and the construction of hybrid identity is explored from both public and private perspectives, institutional pressures are revealed that set the current context for development. This brings forth implications for existing conceptual tools, as well as directions for new research.     

The Political Economy of Social Housing Reform—A Framework for Considering Decentralised Ownership, Management and Service Delivery in Australia

Several State Housing Authorities in Australia are currently examining models of devolved management and ownership of social housing stock and addressing reduced Commonwealth State Housing Agreement funding (or have already done so). These changes in the provision and mode of below-market accommodation are reflective of two broad trends: firstly, a greater reliance on market and not-for-profit provision of public services; and, secondly, a change in the role and mode of bureaucratic intervention at various levels of government. In this article we illustrate a framework for analysing these changes by focusing on the transfer of some 86 000 properties from the Glasgow City Council to the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) in 2003 and also provide an interpretation of how the restructuring of social housing in the UK reflects the political economy of property rights, and the governance and incentive structure through which the restructuring of advanced economies is implemented. We conclude by briefly drawing implications from the British case for Australia. The analysis is conducted in a new institutional tradition that assesses property rights and the provision of social housing, and associated policy goals, under comparative institutional arrangements or governance structures. We argue that stock transfer in essence is a policy of delineating ownership of different attributes of the housing stock and that such a delineation is crucial to the functioning of the emerging governance structure and the ability of stakeholders to extract value from ownership. We draw on a series of interviews conducted by the authors as part of research into the 2003 GHA transfer. These interviews were conducted with policy makers and politicians (past and present), the regulator in Scotland, GHA staff and representatives of the community-based housing association sector in Glasgow.     

The Government Mortgage Guarantee as an Instrument in Housing Policy: Self-supporting Instrument or Subsidy?

This paper discusses the role of government mortgage guarantee schemes in housing policy. It explores different types of government mortgage guarantee scheme, which play different roles, in eight countries. Mortgage guarantee schemes interfere in the mortgage market in order to improve access to mortgages. Such guarantees can be shaped as self-supporting instruments or as subsidies. If the latter is the case the issue of competition and a level playing field is relevant. This paper explores the US and the Dutch guarantee models in depth in order to answer the question of whether these schemes are unsubsidised mortgage market instruments or subsidised programmes. It concludes by reflecting on the meaning of the outcomes in the context of EU competition policy.     

Swedish social mix policy: a general policy without an explicit ethnic focus

Neighbourhood social mix is currently a pressing issue for both researchers and policy makers in the Western world. In an international perspective, Sweden offers an interesting case as both the structure of the housing market and the focus of the social mix policy differs from other countries’ policies. The introduction of a policy for social mixing in Sweden in 1974 was a reaction to the increasing socioeconomic segregation in the housing market. Swedish city planning and the conditions in the housing market have however changed dramatically since the policy was first introduced. This article is based on official housing policy documents and interviews with public actors. It seeks to analyse the policy makers’ understanding of Swedish social mix policy and how the policy is translated into practical planning. The overall aim is to analyse the Swedish policy in relation to similar policies in other countries, this to point at some of the existing differences, especially the different perspective on ethnic segregation. On the basis of document analysis and interviews with public actors, we come to the conclusion that the understanding and practice of the social mix policy in Sweden have been rather consistent over time. Even though Sweden has experienced increasing immigration, which has added an ethnic dimension to housing segregation, the Swedish social mix policy has remained a general policy for counteracting socioeconomic segregation, rather than ethnic segregation. This is an important difference compared to other mixing strategies in Europe and North America where ethnic mix has been, and still is, at the top of the agenda.     

Good dwellings for all: The case of social rented housing in Sweden

During the last decade many European countries have experienced a decline in the production of social rented housing, and there has also been an increase in sales of such dwellings. However, in Sweden social rented housing is still treated as an integral part of Social Democratic housing policy. According to this policy it should not be regarded as a residual tenure only to people in special need of housing. On the contrary, the official goal is to make it as efficient as other tenures in providing good dwellings for all. In order to popularise this tenure a number of measures have been introduced during the 1980s, such as diversification of the stock, decentralisation of management, increasing tenants’ influence and ambitious renewal programmes. Sales of municipal housing have been kept at a low level, although more sophisticated forms of privatisation have been observable. This paper reviews recent tendencies in social rented housing in Sweden, ending up with a discussion of its political basis and prospects.     

How to Abolish Public Housing: Implications and Lessons from Public Management Reform

The paper examines how public or municipal housing in England and Wales is being abolished and transferred into the housing association sector. A new public management (NPM) analytical framework is adopted which provides seven dimensions, disaggregation, competition, private sector management, economy, hands-on top management, standards of performance and measurement of outputs. Overlying these dimensions it is argued that there are two NPM meta-themes - externalisation (which relates to the first two characteristics) and managerialisation (the latter five). Hypotheses are developed to explain the differential impact of NPM reforms on the municipal housing and housing association sectors. These suggest that housing associations are externalised and highly managerialised organisations whereas local authorities display lower levels of externalisation and limited managerialisation. Analysis of the transfer process indicates that externalisation is driven by political and ideological approaches to public housing in addition to NPM dimensions, but that as local authorities transfer their stock into the housing association sector they are also likely to develop into similarly managerialised organisations. In conclusion the NPM framework is demonstrated to need further development whilst systematic research is required on management reform in social housing provision. The lesson to emerge on how to abolish public housing suggests the following policy formula: starve it of resources, create a hostile environment and wait, in the goodness of time it will abolish itself!     

The Effect of Housing Expenses and Subsidies on the Income Distribution in Flanders and the Netherlands

This study explores the role of housing expenses and subsidies with respect to income distribution in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) and the Netherlands in 2005–2006. It analyses income poverty and inequality by comparing equivalent disposable income before and after housing expenses with a relative poverty threshold and the Gini coefficient. Poverty and income inequality increase in both ‘countries’ when equivalent disposable income is corrected for housing expenses. Furthermore, the relative position of outright owners and social tenants regarding poverty improves. Housing subsidies play a (partly) different role in Flanders and the Netherlands. The implicit social rent subsidy in Flanders and the explicit housing allowance in the Netherlands serve the same goal; however, they both redistribute income relatively strongly in favour of low-income tenants. The tax relief system on the other hand increases income inequality in society, in both Flanders and the Netherlands, whereas our comparative analysis suggests that tax relief does not have a moderating effect on net housing expenses.     

European policy and national housing systems

Housing policy in the European Union is the exclusive domain of national governments. European authorities, however, are using their powers in the area of competition more and more to exert a far-reaching influence on policy areas where the Member States should be autonomous.In the Netherlands the Housing Act of 1901 forms the public framework for housing associations, which combine public functions with more or less commercial activities. These hybrid organizations fulfil in the Netherlands the public function not only of housing the households with modest incomes, but also of fostering variety in the housing stock and reducing spatial segregation. Apparently the European Commission underestimates the significance and logic of hybrid organizations. It is important that Member States exercise their autonomous right to shape their own housing policies to the full. European competition policy, in itself a necessary and useful policy domain, must not be misused to thwart national housing aspirations.