Private and social rented housing in Europe: Distinctions,comparisons and resource allocation 1

The difficulties of clearly distinguishing private and social rented housing in a western European context are set out. The issues are illustrated by information for Germany and France. It is argued that comparative housing tenure data can be misleading and that distinctions in terms of ownership are of less significance for resource allocation than the specifics of the relationship between the state and the housing market. The significant production, distribution, pricing, subsidy and profit issues as they relate to rented housing are identified. The policy implications of an approach which is resource allocation rather than tenure orientated is outlined.     

Growth and change in one person households: Implications for the housing market

Abstract

As a result of several demographic and social trends, the one person household accounts for approximately one quarter of all households in Australia and is expected to further expand to one‐third by 2021. After couple families, the single person living alone is the most numerous household form. The paper differentiates one person households by life course stage and considers their likely housing demand in terms of tenure, dwelling type and number of bedrooms. Original analysis of the 1996 ABS 1% Household Sample File has been undertaken. Home ownership increased over the life course for singles, but not to the same extent as for other households. Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that, household income aside, people living alone may prefer flats, units or apartments over detached houses. The paper suggests that our understanding of housing careers needs to incorporate the possibility of one or more spells as a one person household.     

‘You can’t put your roots down’: housing pathways,rental tenure and precarity in older age

Abstract

In light of housing affordability concerns, we examine older people’s experiences of renting within a context of enduring home-ownership norms and aspirations. Adapting Clapham’s housing pathways framework, we ask: How is rental tenure experienced by older people who have encountered precarity in their housing history? Drawing on interviews with 13 older tenants, we observe the uneasy relationship between tenure insecurity and housing quality, and tensions between choice and luck in experiences of renting in later life. Three pathways related to renting in older age were apparent: life-long renting; loss of homeownership through adversity; and deliberate decisions to transition to renting. We note that challenges encountered in current and previous housing situations lead to diverse narratives of precarity in later life. These precarious experiences can be exacerbated by intersecting uncertainties associated with health, financial and personal circumstances. Older tenants’ housing pathways and experiences illuminate ways in which precarity can disrupt opportunities for ageing well and ageing in place.     

Housing in game‐theoretical perspective

This article presents a game‐theoretical framework for the study of housing provision, with particular reference to housing organisations. These organisations and their leaders are seen as acting in three arenas: internal, market and political. The interplay between organisations and other actors within the three arenas can be analysed as nested games, where pay‐offs in one arena are influenced by conditions in the others. In some cases the result of one game determines the rules of later games. Games over tenure legislation are probably the most important cases of institutional design in housing. The outcomes of ‘tenure games’ in the policy arena lay down the rules of future games in the market and organisational arenas and, indirectly, in the political arena as well. Over time a historical chain of games and institutions is developed. This evolutionary process can be investigated through detailed ‘process tracing’, combined with comparative studies.     

Understanding changing housing aspirations: a review of the evidence

Abstract

This article reviews the literature on changing housing aspirations and expectations in contemporary housing systems. It argues that there is a conceptual and definitional gap in relation to the term ‘housing aspirations’, as distinct from expectations, preferences, choices and needs. The article sets out working definitions of these terms, before discussing the evidence on changing housing (and related) systems. Emerging research has begun to consider whether trends such as declining homeownership, affordability concerns and precarious labour systems across a range of countries are fundamentally changing individuals’ aspirations for the forms of housing they aim to access at different stages of their lives. Whilst much of the research into housing aspirations has been considered in terms of tenure, and homeownership in particular, this article suggests that research needs to move beyond tenure and choice frameworks, to consider the range of dimensions that shape aspirations, from the political economy and the State to socialization and individuals’ dispositions for housing.     

The affordability of “affordable” housing in England: conditionality and exclusion in a context of welfare reform

Abstract

Contemporary debates around affordability have largely focused on homeownership and private renting. This article considers the affordable social rented sector in England, in which reforms to social welfare assistance, reduced security of tenure, and a shift towards mid-market rents, are changing access to ‘affordable’ housing for those on the lowest incomes. Drawing on in-depth interviews with housing associations and stakeholders, the article highlights the increasing use of affordability assessments for prospective tenants. These assessments interact with mid-market rental products to increase the potential for exclusion from affordable housing on the grounds of ability to pay. This conditionality is applied not only at the point of tenancy access, but also at renewal of fixed-term tenancies. The research highlights that the combination of welfare and housing policies, in the context of a financialising housing association sector, has the potential to erode access to social housing for those who are perceived as a financial risk, reshaping the focus of social housing.     

Housing careers,asset accumulation and subsidies to owner occupiers — A microsimulation

Owner occupiers in the UK housing market receive considerable central government subsidies, namely through provision of tax relief upon mortgage interest, through exemption of private house sales from capital gains tax and through tax advantages relative to those who pay rent out of their net incomes. This paper sets out a framework for assessing the incidence of these subsidies upon different groups of owner occupiers over time, and suggests how regional fluctuations in house price inflation, size of house purchase loan and residential mobility behaviour affect the incidence of exchequer subsidy.     

Tenure type landscapes and housing market change: a geographical perspective on neo-liberalization in Sweden

Abstract

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type landscapes to analyse changes in housing policy. We do so while acknowledging the evolution of housing policies in Sweden since 1990. Using individualized and multi-scalar tenure type landscapes to measure change in neighbourhoods, we analyse housing clusters in 1990 and 2012. We show that the tenure landscape in 1990 at the height of the welfare state was fairly diverse and mixed. During the next 22 years, however, the landscape changed to become more homogenized and dominated by ownership through tenure conversions and new housing. We argue that awareness of these changes is essential to understanding present and future segregation and gentrification processes.     

The housing provision chain as a comparative analytical framework

This article argues a number of points, some to do with comparative analysis and some with political choices. In relation to comparative housing study it argues that: Ex‐socialist systems in transition are seeking to learn partly by drawing on western housing experience; comparative study to form the basis for this learning depends upon a sound analytical framework; the Housing Provision Chain model provides one such framwork; the “private/public” division is better seen as a “democratic/non‐democratic division”; the various stages of the Chain and the various forms of subsidy input need to be clearly separated out. In relation to policy‐making it argues that: The notion of housing provision by “free market plus safety net” is fallacious; all western markets are carefully regulated; the central financial question concerns the distribution of state support between supply and demand side subsidies; the central political question concerns the distribution of power, money and initiative between the Democratic and Non‐democratic sectors; the questions of the optimal tenure mix needs to be approached pragmatically not ideologically.     

Property values as a measure of ability-to-pay: An empirical examination

The residential property tax is often criticized because housing value may not be a good measure of a household's ability to pay. To examine this criticism, a series of equations is estimated in which the dependent variable is housing price and the independent variables include household income. While the coefficient on income is always significant, it has little explanatory power. Further, the strength of the relationship between income and value weakens as length of tenure in the housing unit increases. Because housing value is a poor proxy for income, modifications to the tax structure such as tax deferment and curcuit breaker programs must be used to improve the viability of property taxation in terms of the ability-to-pay principle.     

Three phases of Danish cohousing: tenure and the development of an alternative housing form

Abstract

Broadly understood as a housing form that combines individual dwellings with substantial common facilities and activities aimed at everyday living, Danish cohousing communities (bofællesskaber) are often seen as pioneering and comparatively successful. Yet, in spite of frequently being mentioned or addressed as case studies in the growing literature on cohousing and, more generally, alternative forms of housing, Danish cohousing experiences have not been systematically analysed since the 1980s. Emphasizing broader trends and evolving societal contexts, this article investigates the development of Danish cohousing over the past five decades. Through this historical analysis, the article also draws attention to the largely neglected issue of tenure structures in the evolution of cohousing. The multifaceted phenomenon of cohousing cannot and should not be reduced to issues of tenure. But if cohousing is to spread and contribute affordable alternatives to mainstream housing, tenure structures should be a key concern.     

Resettlement of Slum Dwellers, Land Tenure Security and Improved Housing, Living and Environmental Conditions at Madina Estate, Accra, Ghana

This research illustrates and analyses the effects of land tenure security on two groups of low-income slum dwellers of Accra (the Ghanaian capital) who have been resettled in 1975 and 1993. The problem of squatting in Accra has been attributed to deficits in housing supply and the high rents of decent accommodation which have left some of the poor with little or no choice but to squat illegally on private or public property. Due to the failure of previous policies to solve the housing problems of the squatters in the capital, this study was conceived to verify the effects of land tenure security and assess the merits of tenure security as an alternative approach to enable low-income residents of the city to improve their housing. Even though tenure security may not be the only condition needed to improve the housing situation of the low-income people of Accra, it can nevertheless be argued that observable improvements and transformations in living conditions have occurred among low-income urbanites that have some sort of tenure security. This research was therefore driven by the central question: to what extent is there a relationship between tenure security and access to housing, and improved living and environmental conditions? A mixed method research design was adopted to draw on relevant information for the research. The study revealed that adequate resettlement of slum dwellers and granting them land tenure security indeed enhanced their access to housing, and improved their living and environmental conditions.     

Forum

Abstract

This paper examined one of the several forms of housing tenure available in Denmark, Equity Co-operatives. It outlines how this form of tenure evolved from a particular philosophy dominant in 19th century Denmark, but is more currently the result of several pieces of legislation which although not specifically promoting co-operatives, have tended to do so. Some of the current administrative arrangements are described and some discussion of the relevance of this form of tenure for Australia is undertaken.     

'The art political' and Los Angeles park planning

Tenant co‐partnership was a social movement which developed alongside the garden city movement in Britain during the period 1900 to 1914, and which financed and built most of the garden suburbs and villages associated with that movement. It was also a unique form of tenure, combining features of a tenant co‐operative and a limited dividend company. This article argues that forms of housing tenure have important long‐term consequences for the built environment, and that co‐partnership was an attempt to find a form which expressed Howard's holistic vision. In particular, co‐partnership was an attempt to harmonize the interests of the individual and the community, and of landlord and tenant. That it did not succeed is due to the failure of the co‐operative movement to back it, then to the effects of the First World War, the predominance of council housing and the inner tensions which led to the deformation of co‐partnership. The article ends with some insights gained from those estates which are still, after nearly 90 years, under collective tenant control, and speculates about the relationship between such control and the quality of the environment.     

Housing,social capital and community development in Seoul

The nature of Korea’s tenure system and its future development has become an increasingly important aspect of housing policy and community development. A major question being posed is what are the implications of housing tenure differences in social capital for housing (estate) development? Are there differences in levels of social capital between ‘homeowners and tenants’ as well as ‘public rental tenants and private rental tenants’? The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast elements of social capital across different housing tenures in the Seoul Metropolitan Region. Using the results of 260 questionnaires and we assess three commonly recognized elements of social capital: social trust, norms and networks. Respondents from across different tenure types reported differences in feelings of acceptance in the neighborhood, and involvement in formal and informal networks. This study found that some of the elements of social capital differed significantly between housing tenures and that housing tenure was also relevant to negative perceptions of socio-economic diversity in the area. This article concludes housing tenure is relevant to the development of neighborhood-based social capital and that this needs to be considered by those involved in implementing housing (estate) development and sustainable communities in Seoul.     

Gentrification or social renewal? Effects of public supported housing renewal in Denmark

This paper analyses social change, particularly the processes of social decay, in obsolete and deteriorated housing in the older housing stock in Denmark between 1986 and 1996. These changes are compared with the development which has occurred in similar kinds of housing that have been physically upgraded through a government program for housing renewal.

The study shows that this kind of housing attracts a quick turnover of residents and a tendency towards more unemployed or lower income occupants. It is also used by young people as their first home when moving away from their parents.

It is also shown that public supported housing renewal stops this type of housing pattern and increases the share of households that have high incomes. The changes, however, are not considerable and there are also many unemployed people among the newcomers. These changes depend to a large degree on the size and tenure of the renewed dwellings. In private renting, particularly co‐operatives and in larger dwellings the socio‐economic composition of residents undergo greater changes than in smaller dwellings in non‐profit or public housing. Extensive renewal often results in high rent compared with rent from the regulated housing market in Denmark. As a result the renewed dwellings have difficulties in competing with other kind of dwellings. For that reason residents of this type of housing primarily consist of welfare or pension recipients or others who receive high housing benefits. A minority of people with higher income also use these dwellings but mostly as temporary housing as after a few years they often move to owner‐occupied housing.     

Intersections of inequality in homeownership in Sweden

Abstract

Inequalities relating to ownership of housing have become a major issue de jour in many Western societies. This article examines how the distribution of homeownership in Sweden relates to two factors widely seen as significant to such inequalities, namely parental tenure status and place of birth. We use longitudinal registry data to examine the bearing of these two factors on individual-level tenure progression since the beginning of the 1990s for persons at different stages of their housing careers. We extend existing understandings of Swedish homeownership patterns by demonstrating that inequalities relating to place of birth and parental tenure intersect with one another in ways that substantially advantage certain subgroups while disadvantaging others, and by demonstrating that experiences of entry into homeownership have in recent years been changing in markedly different ways for these different subgroups. Overall, Swedish homeownership inequalities, far from dissipating, appear to be hardening along existing lines.     

Trouble in paraside? On increasing housing problems in flanders

The survey data for this article was collected by the Center for Social Policy (Antwerp University). At regular intervals, they question a representative number of Belgian families in order to make the operation and effects of social policy measurable. On the basis of that data, this article traces the evolution of housing indicators in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. After outlining the key issues in housing policy in Belgium and Flanders, the article presents the facts: for several population groups, it sketches the developments of tenure, housing amenities, housing costs, and affordability. The emerging picture is one of overall improvement. Nevertheless, some groups lag behind, while new social groups in need of housing emerge (e.g., lone parents). Age and the number of incomes per family seem to be the breaking points. The second part deals specifically with the housing situation of young families (head under 40 years of age). This population group is (historically) responsible for most new building of houses in Belgium and Flanders. Since we observe a decline in ownership, the reasons for this decline are of strategic importance to our understanding of the level of new housing construction and scarcity on the housing market. At the time of the research,Pascal De Decker (sociologist and urban planner) held an appointment at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA). At present, he is an expert consultant to the Cabinet of the Flemish Minister for Urban Policy and Housing. Bert Meulemans (sociologist) supervised the reported research on target groups. He is a researcher at the Center for Social Policy (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA) Veerle Geurts (criminologist) is a researcher at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA)     

Housing aspirations and obsolescence: understanding the relationship

This paper aims to consider whether there is an incipient problem of housing obsolescence in the UK, and if so, what its main dimensions are. It first examines how obsolescence in housing might be understood, and identifies four relevant factors: the nature of the housing stock; the expectations of households and how they are changing; locational and housing market factors; and the role of housing and urban policy. Using this broad structure, obsolescence and the changing aspirations of households are examined in two ways: first by drawing on an eclectic literature about housing, policy and household behaviour; and second by using evidence from interviews with housing professionals in the north of England. The paper concludes that there are good grounds for thinking that the relationship between what the housing stock offers and aspirations is under increasing strain. There seems to be a significant gap opening up between the qualities provided by new and by older housing, challenging longstanding preferences. There is an important set of relationships between tenure and obsolescence, with home ownership defining what is considered normal throughout the housing system. The findings also challenge the prevalent view that neighbourhood conditions are the key to obsolescence, as there is evidence of suppressed obsolescence and doubt about the strengths of some local markets where demand is apparently high. There is consensus around the desirability of local housing systems offering a choice of sizes and dwelling types, which many older as well as new housing areas do not.

Parental background and housing outcomes in young adulthood

Abstract

Scholars and policy-makers are concerned that young adults’ housing opportunities are becoming more dependent on their family background. This could hinder social mobility and exacerbate inequality. Using data from three cohorts of young people drawn from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study of England and Wales, this study examines how parental attributes in childhood are linked to young adults’ housing outcomes two decades later. The results show that young adults’ housing outcomes have changed considerably over time and are persistently stratified by parental class and tenure in ways that vary by gender. Housing outcomes have become somewhat more polarised by parental tenure over time as the children of renters became relatively less likely to enter homeownership and more likely to rent privately. This suggests that renters became an increasingly ‘marginalised minority’ in the late twentieth century, with consequences for their children’s housing careers and future social inequality.