A budget approach for comparing housing affordability

A budget approach for comparing housing affordability

Heylen, K.
Haffner, M.

2010-03-24

In this paper the affordability of housing in the Belgian region of Flanders and the Netherlands is analyzed, using both the expense-to-income ratio and residual income as indicators of affordability. Residual income is obtained by deducting net housing expenses from disposable income, whereas the former is the ratio of net housing expenses to disposable income. For both indicators we apply affordability standards. In case of residual income we use minimum budget standards – excluding housing - that allow for decent participation in society. Regarding the expenditure-to-income ratio we apply the internationally frequently used 30% benchmark. In the methodological section the features of both methods are compared, resulting in a preference for the combination of residual income and budget standards. Then the results for both methods are presented, using Flanders and the Netherlands as our cases. Thirdly, a further analysis using the budget approach is carried out for both ‘countries’ with emphasis on the differences between tenures and socio-economic groups.

affordability, residual income, budget standards, Flanders, the Netherlands

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5921ecd6-69b6-4334-9b46-7593ed780def

Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2010 Heylen, K.; Haffner, M.