Is the Belgian housing model crumbling?

Is the Belgian housing model crumbling?

De Decker, P.

2006-11-24

Workshop 1. Session A. Abstract. The OSIS research project focussed -among other issues- on the strategies of households to secure home ownership. This is an intriguing research question for Belgian scholars, since (1) Belgian governments already since the end of the 19th century continuously promoted home ownership, (2) home ownership became -as a consequence of that- a mass tenure housing people from different social groups and (3) securing risks is not a public issue. To put it bluntly, the qualitative interviews revealed a very rational approach among the respondents towards home ownership and risk. In order to illustrate that, we will deal with the financing of home ownership and the risk avoiding strategies. But we will also deal with the findings that do suggest that the Belgium housing model, being single family housing in a non-urban environment, is crumbling. This has at least two components. The first concerns the apparently rising appeal of urban housing. Historically the promotion of home ownership went hand in hand with avoiding urbanisation. Our interviews show that the anti-urban attitude may come to an end. The second concerns the role of the state in supporting home ownership. Our interviews suggest that the priorities of the government concerning housing should lie elsewhere.

housing model, homeownership, risks, globalisations, urbanisation

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Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2006 De Decker, P.