Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe
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This article aims to explain the effects of the recent economic and financial crisis on housing conditions and the ability of Portuguese families to access housing. It also intends to discuss how the crisis is reconfiguring the housing patterns, in terms of access to housing and changes in public policies, questioning the predominant mode of access to housing based on homeownership. This article also discusses the role of social housing in the Portuguese housing system and the changes and challenges in this sector coming from the economic and financial constraints of families and the state.
This article is structured in three parts. The first is an overview of the Portuguese housing system and social housing in particular, highlighting the conditions and reasons that led to a reduced social housing stock and to the predominance of homeownership. The second part discusses the impact of the crisis on families and the state, trying to demonstrate how the constraints on both are translated into (1) worsening housing conditions, (2) a diversification of groups struggling to access housing in the private market and (3) a reduction of affordable housing, pressing the social housing sector. Finally, the third part is a reflection on the changes that the crisis has had in the orientation of housing policies and their instruments, arguing that the patterns of the Portuguese housing system are changing with emphasis on the need to diversify the housing supply to increasingly diverse groups in housing need.
16.6.2017 |
Teresa Costa Pinto | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 131-141 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.332
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe
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With Denmark faring reasonably well through the global financial crisis, the policy changes to the social housing sector caused by the crisis have been limited. Nevertheless, changes have taken place nonetheless both in terms of policy and in the residential composition of the sector which policies are trying to react upon. This means that the sector is at a cross-road as this paper will show. The future remains uncertain; depending to a large extent on the application of the policies already in place and policy reactions to the current challenges.
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe
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After the economic crisis in the early 1990s there was excess supply of housing, but over the last 25 years demand has increased because of rising population, rising incomes and low levels of housing construction. The result has been rising prices and longer queues to (rent regulated) rental housing. The lack of affordable housing has made the situation especially difficult for low-income "outsiders", e.g. immigrant groups and various marginalized groups. In the debate about explanations and policies one can find demand for "more market", e.g. deregulating the rental market, weaken the municipal planning monopoly and cutting back on building regulations. There are also proposals for "less market", e.g. state directives about municipal planning volumes, subsidies to housing construction and more active municipal housing companies. As the current government is weak, most initiatives comes from the local level, e.g. both below market rents for lower income households and planning for more low-cost housing.
14.6.2017 |
Hans Lind | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 150-160 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.334
The ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (1995-2007) saw prosperous economic growth in the Republic of Ireland and an intense period of housing construction and urban development. In 2008 Ireland entered into recession, which resulted in a collapse of the property market and the construction industry. This collapse left just over 2,000 housing developments unfinished across the country. Since 2008, the Irish Government, in conjunction with local authorities, has been developing strategies and plans to finalise these unfinished estates. This paper reports on the current practices for resolving issues in unfinished housing estates in the Republic of Ireland, with a particular focus on the plans to utilise empty housing for social housing purposes. The paper critiques the ways in which this imposed tenure mix can potentially threaten housing policy objectives for sustainable and balanced communities. It is the contention of this paper that this housing practice needs urgent review.
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The Dutch Cabinet published its Housing Market Reform Agenda on 17 September 2013. This paper describes the main features of the Agenda and presents an ex-ante evaluation of this policy document. The introduction of a landlord levy is one of the biggest inconsistencies in this Agenda. The Housing Market Reform Agenda is particularly critical of housing associations. There are good reasons to throw away the bath water, but the baby (= the housing association) should be nurtured.
29.1.2014 |
Hugo Priemus | Volume: 1 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 9-16 | 10.13060/23362839.2014.1.1.25
This paper studies the roles of the new-style PRH (public rental housing) programme in Shanghai’s socio-spatial dynamics. It shows that the development of PRH in Shanghai is mainly a result of a deliberate urban development policy in line with other strategies such as city marketing and gentrification. The analysis is augmented with data from a questionnaire survey of PRH tenants in Shanghai. Finally, this paper identifies challenges for the future development of the public rental housing sector in China.
27.1.2014 |
Jie Chen | Volume: 1 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 26-34 | 10.13060/23362839.2014.1.1.27
