In the past ten to 20 years, governments in various countries have introduced or reinforced market principles in their housing systems. As a consequence, social landlords should have increased opportunities to adopt a more market-oriented approach towards the management of their housing stock....

This introduction to the special issue on 'market concepts, coordination mechanisms and new actors in social housing' makes the case for multi-disciplinary and multi-level studies of the impacts of market-oriented policies aimed at social housing. The authors suggest that privatisation, tenant...

This paper aims to clarify the research agenda and to tease out the policy implications of 'area effects' for British housing policy, particularly with respect to policies for the regeneration of deprived housing areas. After a review of the growing interest in area effects in current policy,...

Glasgow has a large council sector characterized by a range of problems associated with low-income tenants, disrepair, insufficient resources and high levels of housing debt. Reluctantly, the council has come to the view that stock transfer, ultimately to local community-based housing...

The proportion of social rental housing has fallen very strongly in the former West Germany since the middle of the 1960s. In comparison with other European countries, Germany has only a small social housing quota but a high percentage of private rental housing. For the future, a further decline...

The objectives of the present study are to expand our knowledge on how different ethnic groups are coping with the housing market in Oslo, seen from the ethnic minorities' own perspectives. To provide data on this subject, in-depth interviews have been conducted with informants of Pakistani,...

This paper analyses the role and effects of housing policies on residential differentiation in the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The focus is on contemporary 'post-privatization' housing-policy measures and their effects, although the transformation from socialism to a market economy...

Recently, the Netherlands has been pursuing a new policy of urban renewal. Old urban renewal concentrated on pre-war urban districts and had a technical orientation. The predominant shift in tenure was from commercial to social rented housing. New urban renewal focuses on post-war urban...

In Belgium, housing policy is one of the responsibilities of the regional governments. According to the Belgian Constitution, every citizen has the right to decent and affordable housing. However, the violation of this right for many families is increasingly contested. In particular, the...

In March 2001 the Dutch parliament discussed and approved the Housing Memorandum 'What people want, where people live'. This policy document gives a broad picture of housing policy for the next decade. It stresses individual freedom of choice, sets ambitious homeownership targets, analyses the...