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 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...

The new European Reform Treaty, which was agreed politically in 2007, includes a separate protocol which allows European member states considerable freedom to organize and run their social amenities - including social housing. It appears that housing associations are eligible for state support,...

The size of the Dutch social housing sector, with a 32 per cent share of the housing stock, has prompted concerns over the 'level playing field' of competition between social and commercial housing providers. In 2007, this concern culminated in a complaint from the Dutch Association of...

Encouraging home ownership is an important aim of housing policy in many countries. It is supposed to have positive effects on individual households and on society as a whole. This article focuses on the effect of home ownership on former tenants of social rented housing in the Netherlands. The...

The most recent population forecasts tell us that the number of people living in the Netherlands will decrease after 2030, and the number of households after 2035. A long period of housing surpluses may be expected to follow the post-war era, a period marked by housing shortages. According to...

In a recent issue of this journal Priemus discusses the implications of the shift in the Dutch housing market from suction to pressure. He rightly asserts that the impact made by surpluses on a market differs from that made by shortages, and that this difference will lead to a new generation of...

This article starts from the observation that social rented housing in Britain is in transition. Evidence is presented to show the emerging importance of not-for-profit registered social landlords, and the growing significance of stock transfer associations (formed from within the public...

During the 1990s, as social housing throughout Europe experienced budget cuts, the British response involved adopting a more European approach. A market for social housing finance has been successfully created. Major contrasts with Europe remain, particularly the dominance of municipal housing....

In the Netherlands 95 per cent of all rents are regulated. The Housing Minister announced in her Rental Letter of November 2004 that this would be reduced to 75 per cent. At the same time she wants the housing associations to contribute €250 million a year to the increasing public expenditure...