H.M.H. Van der Heijden

Management of social rented housing in Western Europe

Abstract The pre‐war growth and development of the social rented housing sector in Western Europe was related to substantial quantitative housing shortages, and was largely supported and controlled by central governments. However, since the 1970s there have been reductions in government subsidies for this sector and a shift away from government regulation towards market mechanisms. The greater freedom of the social rented sector to decide its own policy is often accompanied by greater risks. Social housing organisations feel more tension between guaranteeing the financial continuity of the organisation and its social objectives. This paper will examine to what extent and in what way this process of independence in seven Western European countries is being shaped and what this means for the position of the social housing organisations. The focus will be on a number of financial and social aspects of the housing management in the social rented sector.

The private rental sector in Western Europe: Developments since the Second World War and prospects for the future

Abstract In the period after the Second World War, the dominant position of the private rental sector in the housing market in many West European countries came to an end. Economic developments and government policy both contributed to the greatly deteriorating competitive position of the private rental sector in many countries. Although there have been comparable developments in many countries that have led to a decrease in the share of private rented dwellings, there are also considerable differences between them regarding the size and function of the private rental sector in the housing system. There are also differences in the use of policy instruments and the volume of new construction of private rented dwellings. As a result of recent developments in housing policy in many West European countries the competitive position of the private rental sector has started to improve. Moreover, in a number of countries (regional) housing shortages are again occurring. For the private rental sector this perhaps ...

Social housing in Western Europe in the nineties

Housing systems in Western Europe display a fair degree of similarity in their development. After the Second World War, governments became deeply involved in housing. Faced with housing shortages caused by the war, government policies were primarily directed toward large-scale housing construction programs. This was the heyday of the social rented sector in Europe. In the mid-1970s, however, a shift occurred in the position of this sector within housing policy. At that time, housing shortages were declining. Meanwhile, insights in how to structure the welfare state were changing. Thus, at a growing pace, the social rented sector has been losing its dominant role to home ownership. Diverse causes for this development have been pointed out. Various authors have identified (a combination of) ideological and economic motives (see the contributions to this special issue). Furthermore, the course these changes have taken in different countries is fairly similar. There was a general decline in public investment; there was a shift away from government regulation toward the market mechanism; the remaining government influence was decentralized; and the (declining) financial support shifted from generic to specific subsidies, targeted to the groups with the weakest socio-economic position. Throughout Western Europe, this development was accompanied by (attempts at) privatization of the social rented sector. Lundqvist (1992, p. 3) considers privatization as a conscious public policy, regardless of the level of welfare provision. He defines it as actions taken by actors legitimately representing the public sector to transfer the hitherto public responsibility for a certain activity away from the public and into the private sector. In practice, West European countries show differences in the division of competencies between the public and private sectors. At the same time, they show differences in the degree to which and the means whereby government policy is oriented toward a shift in competence from the public to the private sector. Nevertheless, we can distinguish several comparable efforts at privatization.

The effect of earthquakes on the housing market and the quality of life in the province of Groningen, the Netherlands

The Netherlands is not known for the occurrence of earthquakes. This is, however, a hot topic in the province of Groningen. Because of gas extraction, this area suffered from more than 1000 earthquakes. Most of them are not very intensive, but also bigger earthquakes of between 2 and 3 on the scale of Richter have been measured. In the last few years, thousands of houses are damaged, house prices have dropped, and the liveability is at stake. This paper pays attention to the effects of these earthquakes on the functioning of the housing market and the quality of life in the region. An extensive survey was conducted, focus groups were organized, housing market statistics were analyzed, and several econometric models were evaluated to give an answer to the question in which way the earthquakes influence the local housing market and the liveability.

Government Sponsored Enterprises in the United States

Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in the United States are privately owned financial corporations which operate under a public (federal) charter. They were created by the Congress in order to enhance credit availability to specific sectors of the economy: housing finance, agriculture, and education. The mortgage market in crisis in the Great Depression was the trigger for the creation of the housing finance GSEs: first came the Federal Home Loan Banks, then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This article focuses especially on the last two, which were taken over by the US Treasury in 2008.