The large-scale transformation of the housing stock towards net-zero energy has already mobilised substantial public and private investment and is set to accelerate in the coming decades. While many studies examine the effects of decarbonisation on rents and prices, less is known about cost-reducing benefits for households, how these gains are distributed across tenures and whether they ultimately improve affordability. These distributional questions are particularly salient in Western Europe where persistent unaffordability cleavages between homeowners and renters exist. This article investigates the impact of decarbonisation on housing costs across tenures. The analysis draws on registry data from Dutch households between 2018 and 2023, employing heating degree day-adjusted gas consumption as a proxy for decarbonisation. To estimate the impact of decarbonisation on costs, the article combines a matching procedure with a staggered diff-in-diffs design, followed by a series of distributional measures. Across these indicators, outright owners exhibit the largest relative reductions in housing costs, mortgagors the largest absolute reductions, private renters the smallest reductions, and social renters are in an intermediate position. These findings, when understood within the context of current decarbonisation policies, comprising subsidies for homeowners and cost-neutrality measures for tenants, point to the entrenchment of current unaffordability cleavages.

Since the 1990s, many governments have reduced direct funding for social housing. In Northwestern Europe, indirect subsidies and guarantees have allowed private providers to maintain and expand the social rental stock. In contrast, Spain's social rental sector has remained underdeveloped. Amid the current affordability crisis, attention to social housing is growing, emphasized by a new law prohibiting the sale of public land zoned for this purpose. Given public expenditure constraints, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as an alternative to finance new construction. These partnerships involve leasing public land at reduced costs to private entities for social housing development. Despite land availability, financial challenges persist and tenders often fail to attract private sector interest. This paper examines constraints affecting social housing development by exploring a PPP by the Catalan Land Institute. The central research question is: How do institutional dynamics and financial constraints impact the provision of social rental housing in Spain? To answer this question, a mixed-methods approach integrates interviews with a sensitivity analysis of key parameters in a Discounted-Cash-Flow (DCF) model. The findings underscore high financing costs, weak renter protections, and misaligned fiscal policies as significant obstacles. The paper recommends further investigating public-backed guarantors, housing allowances, and fiscal incentives to address these challenges.

Almost regardless of the welfare system and market context, the changing housing landscapes in Western countries show a number of similar trends. Households are confronted with decreasing access to homeownership and social renting, and increased reliance on private renting in combination with growing housing shortages and housing affordability problems. This article reflects—from the perspectives of governance and politics—on recent housing tenure experiences in Australia and the Netherlands, which are also relevant to UK developments. Similar challenges, leading to increasing housing supply targets, do not necessarily elicit the same policy responses, as countries’ actions often follow their historical pathways. Australia maintains largely market-oriented policies, while the Netherlands has made a U-turn away from the market. With an increasingly fragmented and precarious lower end of the market, issues of income and wealth inequality are on the agenda.

Sommige groepen komen er niet of moeilijk tussen op de woningmarkt. Zo kunnen jongeren steeds minder vaak een huis kopen. Niet alleen door stijgende prijzen, maar ook omdat ze soms zoveel huur betalen dat sparen voor een koopwoning niet meer lukt. Deze zogeheten generation rent is te rijk voor sociale huur en heeft te weinig inkomen voor een koophuis en is daarmee aangewezen tot de dure vrije huursector. De TU Delft heeft op basis van data uit het WoONonderzoek 2024 onderzocht of er ook in Nederland sprake is van zo’n generatie, wat de oorzaken daarvan zijn en welke mogelijkheden er zijn om de private huursector aantrekkelijker te maken voor deze groep.

This chapter shows that housing costs in the Netherlands are increasing, because of a shortage of dwellings on the market and the recent increase in inflation. Aiming to tackle the housing market crisis for those households who are losing out has led government to work toward re-claiming control over the housing market, after control had increasingly no longer deemed needed in the past two decades and government had retreated. The chapter shows that the households concerned in terms of housing affordability and accessibility are among others the low- and middle-income households, the young, the first time buyers, and the private tenants in rental dwellings with an unregulated rent. The housing market problems, therefore, reached the top of the societal and political agenda in the past few years. Government led on negotiating solutions to facilitate new construction and the realization of new units, while temporarily re-controlling rents in the private rental sector.

Throughout the European Union governments have reduced their investment in social housing, a trend that has also affected the Netherlands. Providers of social rental housing have faced policy changes that have challenged the dominant role in the unique Dutch unitary rental market regime. This paper examines the extent to which a revival of this dominant role can be attributed to the government’s recent interventions. It contextualises the subsequent challenges facing the housing market currently and in the future based on a review of relevant literature, policy documents, and input from interviewed experts. The largely qualitative interpretation shows that recent government interventions have given providers of social rental housing back some of the previous autonomy they had lost in terms of financing and regulation. We argue that providers of social rental housing are regaining a more important role in providing housing for low- and medium-income groups.

State-subsidised housing in the Global South often receives criticism for ­failing to meet the economic needs of low-income citizens. The K206 housing project, situated in Alexandra, Johannesburg, stands out as a unique case by not only addressing housing requirements but also addressing the economic concerns of its low-income homeowners. This response included the incorporation of state initiated formal built-in rental rooms and provisions for incremental extensions to support income generation. This paper aims to explore both of these options that allowed residents to use housing as a means of income generation, and examines household strategies and the motivations behind using these options for extra income. Twenty-one resident interviews and spatial analyses provided insights on how the K206 housing facilitated income-­generating opportunities for its residents and analyses whether households capitalised on these opportunities and the factors influencing their decisions to do so. The findings were that state built-in backyard rooms did not generally work for income generation due to poor allocation strategies that caused conflict. Incremental extensions, even in unintended locations proved more effective for generating income. Incrementally added backyard rooms served multiple purposes and had the potential to generate income to address cash shortfalls, contribute to ­pension plans, and facilitate investments.

While governments have been promoting private renting in recent decades to increase housing supply, they have not necessarily facilitated this. The Netherlands is a case in point, as rent price control has been reduced in this century with the aim to give more leeway to private rental investment. Private renting achieved a turn-around in market share from 10 per cent of dwellings in 2009 to more than 13 per cent in 2023. Most of this growth can be attributed to the rental segment where rents were not controlled: it increased to about 50% of rental dwellings in 2021. Recently increasing housing shortages followed by societal unrest and elections caused the Dutch government to formulate new plans. Not only was the building of 1 million housing units programmed and stimulated, also plans to (temporarily) re-control rents of a large part of the de-controlled rental segment were formulated. Tax measures reducing the attractiveness of investment in private renting have been taken recently as well because of diverse reasons (protecting tenants; court decision on taxing wealth). To study these effects on private renting investments, this study aims to analyze the effects of these changes on the investment behavior of landlords in the Netherlands, in a context of rising inflation. The two studies in this contribution show that new supply will most likely lose out.

De ontwerp-Wet Betaalbare Huur die door de minister voor Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening bij het parlement aanhangig is gemaakt, geeft aanleiding tot verhitte debatten tussen voor- en tegenstanders van de introductie van regulering van aanvangshuurprijzen in een groot deel van wat nu nog de vrije huursector heet. Inmiddels is de wijze waarop in Duitsland van overheidswege de woninghuren worden beïnvloed meermaals genoemd als een goed, zo niet beter, alternatief voor de manier waarop met de ontwerp-Wet Betaalbare Huur beoogd wordt de aanvangshuren in het grootste deel van de huidige vrije huursector te verlagen. Deze constatering was voor Peter Boelhouwer, Arnoud Vlak en Marietta Haffner aanleiding om op basis van de onderzoeksvraag “Kunnen tempering van de aanvangshuren en de bereidheid om te investeren in de vrijehuursector samengaan?” een eerste antwoord te vinden op de vraag of de Duitse aanpak inderdaad een serieus alternatief voor de ontwerp-Wet Betaalbare Huur is. Uit hun voorstudie blijkt dat de Mietspiegel en de Mietpreisbremse tot doel hebben om de scherpe kanten van marktwerking in de vrijehuursector weg te nemen door de ontwikkeling van de aanvangshuren te dempen ten opzichte van hoe deze zich bij volledig vrijlaten daarvan ontwikkelen. Dit laatste gebeurt door de introductie van vergelijkings- of referentiehuren. Deze worden bijgehouden en gepubliceerd in een zogeheten Mietspiegel, een overzicht van huurprijzen geordend naar bepaalde woningkenmerken. In gebieden met een gespannen woningmarkt mag de aanvangshuur van nieuwe huurcontracten niet hoger liggen dan het niveau van de ter plaatse geldende referentie- of vergelijkingshuur vermeerderd met 10% (de Mietpreisbremse). Centrale gedachte is dat de met de Mietpreisbremse ten hoogste toegestane aanvangshuren de trend volgen die aan de ontwikkeling van markthuren ten grondslag ligt. Door de temperende werking op de ontwikkeling van de aanvangshuren draagt een systematiek geënt op de Duitse Mietspiegel in combinatie met de Mietpreisbremse bij aan verbetering van de betaalbaarheid van de aanvangshuren in die delen van de vrije huursector die zich kenmerken door krapte. Deze toekomstige aanvangshuren worden met toepassing van het instrumentarium lager vastgesteld, dan wanneer ze in het geheel vrije spel van vraag en aanbod tot stand zullen komen. Bovendien heeft de combinatie van Mietspiegel en Mietpreisbremse tot gevolg dat aanvangshuren die uitgaan boven de geldende Mietspiegel met opslag als exces worden aangemerkt. Deze situaties kunnen met het reeds bestaande instrumentarium van bijvoorbeeld de Wet Goed Verhuurderschap bestreden worden. Afhankelijk van de beschouwperiode waarover de Mietspiegel wordt berekend én van de hoogte van de opslag die met de Mietpreisbremse voor nieuw af te sluiten huurovereenkomsten ten hoogste wordt toegestaan, is de dempende werking van het instrumentarium groter of juist minder groot. Onmiskenbaar voordeel van het gebruik van een systeem geënt op de Duitse Mietspiegel in combinatie met een Mietpreisbremse is dat het de investeringsbereidheid in vrijesectorhuurwoningen in beginsel niet aantast. Een ander belangrijk voordeel van de Duitse Mietspiegel in combinatie met de Mietpreisbremse is dat het, in tegenstelling tot de ontwerp-Wet Betaalbare Huur, aansluit op de vraag-/aanbodverhouding op de (huur)woningmarkt. En omdat de woningmarkt vooral regionaal wordt bepaald, betekent dit dat het instrument van regio tot regio verschillende uitkomsten heeft. Naar verwachting zal toepassing van een dergelijk systeem in Nederland voor een niet-onbelangrijk deel van de woningmarktregio’s géén effect hebben. In de regio’s waar geen sprake is van krapte op de vrijesector huurwoningmarkt of waar na verloop van tijd de krapte afneemt zullen de aanvangshuren de opslag van de Mietpreisbremse op de Mietspiegel niet halen. Het instrumentarium schakelt zich in zulke situaties vanzelf uit. Het instrumentarium treedt pas weer werking als de krapte toeneemt. Ook dit draagt bij aan de investeringsbereidheid. In tegenstelling tot wat met de ontwerp-Wet Betaalbare Huur wordt beoogd, is het doel van een systematiek geënt op de Duitse Mietspiegel in combinatie met de Mietpreisbremse juist niet om de aanvangshuren in de vrijehuursector per definitie lager dan de markthuur vast te stellen. Dat tast het vertrouwen van investeerders in het door de overheid ten opzichte van de vrijehuursector gevoerde beleid in de kern aan. Ingeval de wetgever van opvatting is dat een systeem geënt op de Duitse Mietspiegel in combinatie met de Mietpreisbremse resulteert in aanvangshuren die nog steeds voor te veel huishoudens onvoldoende betaalbaar zijn, komt als vanzelf de vraag van herintroductie van objectsubsidiëring aan de orde. Objectsubsidiëring brengt de overheid in de positie om van de investeerders die daarop intekenen te vragen de aanvangshuren vast te stellen op niveaus die een te laag rendement geven. In ruil voor deze prestatie draagt de overheid middels subsidiëring bij aan het voor hen benodigde rendement.

The South African Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was initiated to provide subsidised housing for low‐income families. However, the programme faced challenges in establishing adequate technical guidelines and standards, resulting in subpar housing quality. This article discusses the multifaceted nature of subsidised housing design, emphasising the importance of incorporating technical housing standards as well as the spatial needs of residents based on their context (at both domestic and neighbourhood scales). The article focuses on the K206 housing RDP project in Alexandra, Johannesburg, as a case study that transitioned from generic technical standards to a resident‐responsive design scheme that was inspired by the backyard room incremental expansions that were already prevalent in the Alexandra context. A critical review of South Africa’s RDP housing design technical standards and policy is explored. The article also examines the density standards and allowances for incremental expansions introduced by the K206 project, analysing data derived from fieldwork observations, interviews, and the spatial analysis of 26 dwelling units. The study’s findings underscore the significance of maintaining an equilibrium between technical standards and resident‐responsive design decisions. The results demonstrate that tailoring the RDP housing design solutions to unique contextual needs can significantly elevate the quality of life of residents concerning income generation and flexibility for incremental expansion. However, this balance is delicate and disparities between the RDP technical standards and user‐initiated development over time also have the potential to ultimately impair residents’ living spaces.

This report presents the Transdisciplinary Environment for Affordable and Sustainable Housing (TEASH) developed in the three-year activity of the RE-DWELL network. Together with Deliverables 4.1-4.5 and 4.7, it represents the work done in the project to create a transdisciplinary learning and research environment spanning over academia, research and practice. [...]

The chapter provides a state-of-the-art review of regulation of the private rented sector focusing particularly price control and tenant security. It provides a brief context of the regulatory challenges in view of the key dimensions of private renting in comparison to other tenures. It details common typologies from first through to third-generation from the history of rent price control and rationales for intervention and effectiveness in terms of, inter alia, affordability and the recent urban affordability crisis. It considers theoretical dimensions as well as empirics, indicating potential costs and benefits of regulation which empirically are found to be mixed. These depend on housing market context, policy objectives and governance frameworks, as well as implementation details.

Despite persistent housing affordability issues, energy policy and housing renovation are usually investigated separately from housing costs other than energy. Researchers have examined the financial viability of renovation attending to building conditions and the socio-economic characteristics of their occupants. However, the distributional impacts of renovation incentives and the potential of fiscal policy to redistribute housing costs remain understudied. Dutch fiscal policy, favouring homeownership, offers a relevant context to evaluate how property taxation can boost renovation rates. The novelty of this paper resides in investigating the impact of two policies, the current direct subsidy and a proposal for a green tax, on both the financial viability of renovation and the subsequent distribution of housing costs. The proposed green tax combines energy efficiency and taxation of property revenue. We employ a model considering marginal costs of housing renovation, obtained from a government dataset, and marginal benefits, drawn from a hedonic regression. We assess the distributional impacts of different policy scenarios by examining changes in user costs across income deciles. Our findings indicate that existing renovation subsidies exacerbate the regressive distributional impacts resulting from the current housing taxation system in the Netherlands. Introducing energy-efficiency-linked property taxation can make homeownership fiscality less regressive while incentivising housing renovation. Ultimately, this study highlights the importance of incorporating housing affordability as a fundamental element in renovation policies to balance environmental and distributional objectives.

Woningschaarste zorgt al een aantal jaren voor een crisis op de woningmarkt. De groei van de woningvoorraad houdt geen gelijke tred met de groei van het aantal huishoudens. Ook lukt het niet jaarlijks 100.000 woningen bij te bouwen. Het almaar groeiende woningtekort en de relatief lage rente zorgen voor sterke prijsstijgingen in de koopsector. Vooral starters en huishoudens tot een middeninkomen zoeken daarom noodgedwongen hun heil in de particuliere huursector. In het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Ierland bestaat deze constellatie al langer. Wat vertellen die landen ons? En wat mogen we verwachten van de uitbreiding van de huurregulering naar het middenhuur-segment?

The regulation of financial markets according to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria has become a priority for the European Union (EU). Recent legislation, such as the EU Green Taxonomy, aims to identify sustainable investments enhancing transparency and accountability while steering private finance toward environmental objectives. The introduction of ESG criteria poses specific questions for Social Housing Organisations (SHOs), particularly as the decarbonisation of the housing stock is also incorporated into national legislation. This article contributes to the social housing finance literature by breaking ground on ESG, an area of intensive legislative activity currently re-shaping financial markets. The study draws from interviews with SHOs’ finance directors, banking officers, rating agencies and public officials to answer the question: How does the introduction of ESG legislation affect the financing of social housing decarbonisation? First, the results show that ESG legislation is broadening reporting responsibilities while producing only limited additional finance ultimately geared towards large and commercially oriented SHOs. Second, the expansion of energy-efficiency requirements is resulting in higher costs creating tensions with SHOs’ social mission of building homes at affordable rents. Third, the adoption of ESG financing is producing inequalities in access to capital across national financing systems and individual providers.

This chapter analyses whether the turnaround in market share of the Dutch private rental sector, from 10 per cent in 2009 to almost 13 per cent in 2021, can be interpreted as a new role of this tenure following the global urban rental affordability crisis. Based on a literature review, the chapter finds that the Dutch government facilitated the growth of the stock with a de-controlled rent and by making the control of rent prices more market conforming. At the same time, the government introduced regulations that made social renting and homeownership less accessible. As a result, when in the aftermath of the global financial crisis the shortage of housing in comparison to the rising numbers of households rose, affordability and accessibility problems reached the top of the political agenda during the national elections of 2021. In response, the government that came into office in 2022 launched a number of plans to stimulate reducing the housing shortage in a ten-year period. These plans also included re-regulating rent prices for middle-priced rental housing. These plans, as well as the quickly rising inflation in combination with the societal challenges of energy, climate and sustainability, question a continued revival of private renting.

The energy transition across Europe’s built environment will probably be one of the main financial challenges of the coming decades. Renovating the social housing stock to attain the built fabric standards introduced in the European Directive on Energy Performance of Building (EPBD) will require the mobilisation of both public and private funding as envisioned by the European Commission in the Renovation Wave. In this landscape of increased investment needs, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards have risen to a prominent position as the main indicators of sustainable investment. While ESG-earmarked funds have grown significantly in the last years, there is widespread concern about the real impact of ESGfunded projects and whether these are in fact bringing additional investment into key transitional activities such as the renovation of the social housing stock. This project poses two questions, first, How does ESG funding interlock with the renovation strategies of social housing providers? And second, How do institutional factors affect the uptake of ESG funding? To answer these questions, this project draws from semi-structured interviews with finance officers from housing providers across six European countries with large social housing stocks: Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Sweden, and the UK. The main objective of this paper is to critically assess the contributions of ESG funding to the energy transition and contextualise it within traditional forms of private and public financing of social housing.