The population density in megacities in China gives rise to challenges, such as traffic congestion and soaring housing prices. A trend of leaving primate cities can be observed as well as a population increase in secondary cities. These trends might point to an urbanisation transition from the primate city stage to the secondary city stage. Research is needed to determine at which stage of urbanisation China currently resides, and who are migrating across the different levels of cities in this stage. In order to answer these questions, the current study combines the theory of differential urbanisation and migrant selectivity, and analyses city-level migration patterns and demographic characteristics of migrants across the urban hierarchy. The findings indicate that China is currently in the intermediate primate city stage, where the upward migration across the urban hierarchy is driven by younger adults with higher education and income, and a lower likelihood of marriage or parenthood. Building upon global evidence, this research further extends the theory of differential urbanisation by incorporating migrant selectivity into the interpretation of urbanisation stages. It reveals that educated migrants tend to concentrate and move up the urban hierarchy in the primate city stage but might deconcentrate during the secondary and small city stages. This study offers practical insights for policymakers at the national and city levels to develop population growth plans, adjust targeted migration policies and respond to future urbanisation processes.

The private rented sector (PRS) plays an increasingly important role in accommodating young people and migrants in China’s metropolitan cities. However, the PRS in China is still underdeveloped, as evidenced by, e.g. a low degree of professionalisation, lack of basic rental laws and regulations, and poor housing experiences of tenants. The purpose of the current article is to identify the main challenges towards a well-functioning PRS, as perceived by Chinese local governments, landlords, and tenants, and to propose possible solutions to cope with these challenges. After reviewing both academic and grey literature and exploring the results of our previous research, we found that these challenges result from three main root causes, i.e. power imbalance between landlords and tenants, inadequate institutional arrangements, and path dependence on the past productivism model. Based on the analysis, a number of recommendations were proposed, including formalising the PRS, introducing regulations, setting minimum housing standards, and increasing public school availability to enhance equal citizenship rights between renters and homeowners.

Eind 2024 staat Zuidwest-Nederland op het punt een belangrijke ontwikkeling te verwelkomen met de opening van de langverwachte Blankenburgverbinding. Deze nieuwe snelwegtunnel zal de A20 bij Vlaardingen verbinden met de A15 bij Rozenburg (zie figuur 1). Dit artikel onderzoekt vooraf (exante) de impact van de Blankenburgverbinding op de woningmarkt in de regio en beantwoordt daarmee de vraag: wat zal het effect zijn van deze nieuwe infrastructuur op de regionale woningmarkt? Als gevolg van de aanleg van de Blankenburgverbinding zal naar verwachting de verkoopprijs van woningen gelegen ten zuidwesten van de verbinding (relatief) stijgen, als gevolg van de in dit gebied (sterker) toenemende druk op de woningmarkt. Het effect van de Blankenburgverbinding strekt zich dus verder uit dan enkel het verbeteren van de bereikbaarheid; de verbinding zal ook gevolgen hebben voor de regionale woningmarkt.

In 2024 wordt naar verwachting de Blankenburgverbinding geopend, waardoor de A20 bij Vlaardingen en de A15 bij Rozenburg met elkaar worden verbonden. Deze nieuwe verbinding zal niet alleen leiden tot een verbetering van de bereikbaarheid in het omliggende gebied, maar zal ook mogelijk gevolgen hebben voor de bevolkingsontwikkeling, werkgelegenheid en woningmarkt. Om de effecten van de aanleg van de Blankenburgverbinding op de omliggende regionale woningmarkt vooraf (ex ante) te bepalen, zullen er in opdracht van vijf gemeenten en vijf woningcorporaties enkele samenhangende onderzoekmodulen moeten worden uitgevoerd. [...]

The recent revival of the private rented sector in many regions highlights the importance of understanding the well-being of private renters. While there is a consensus that private renters are less satisfied with their life than homeowners, little attention has been given to examining the life satisfaction of private renters from different sub-sectors, nor has the underlying mechanism linking residential environment and life satisfaction been thoroughly investigated. The present paper aims to address these gaps by examining the life satisfaction of private renters from different sub-sectors in Shenzhen, China. We propose a model, based on Amérigo and Aragones’ (1997) theoretical framework, that links residential environment, social exclusion, and life satisfaction. The model fits well with the data collected from 619 renters. The results showed that only 38% of the respondent private renters were satisfied with their life. Furthermore, we found urban village renters were significantly less satisfied with their life compared with renters living in commercial housing and Long-term Rented Apartments. Path analysis results suggest that some objective aspects of the residential environment, renters’ perceived social exclusion, and their residential satisfaction could explain a substantial proportion of the variances in life satisfaction while the influence of demographic variables was found to be insignificant. Perceived equal citizenship rights, perceived discrimination, and perceived reasonable rent were shown to have significant effects on life satisfaction. The paper concludes with a discussion on policy implications aimed at enhancing the life satisfaction of private renters.

After being neglected since the establishment of the housing market in the 1990s, China has recently shown great enthusiasm for developing the housing rental market. It is essential to understand why people choose private renting as it enables us to better identify the demands of tenants and develop policies accordingly to promote private renting. However, at the micro-level, the determinants for people's renting intention have rarely been studied in the Chinese context. This paper aims to examine what specific underlying beliefs, as well as background factors, influence people's private renting intention in China's metropolises. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we designed questionnaires and collected personal data from 476 private renters living in Shenzhen. We found people had generally favorable attitudes, supportive subjective norms, and high perceived behavioral control of private renting in Shenzhen. Results from a path analysis suggest that people's renting intention was most influenced by their attitudes toward renting, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. In addition, marital status and some underlying behavioral, normative, and control beliefs were also found to have significant influences on renting intention. Based on our findings, some recommendations were proposed to promote private renting, such as advertising the advantages of renting to the public, enhancing the sense of belonging of renters, and expanding the rental housing supply.

In 2010, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive announced that all new buildings are to be nearly zero-energy as of January 2021. Having reached year 2022, it can be said that the transition has proven to be slower than anticipated. Transition research has long acknowledged the potential impact of the human factor in the process of change. While there is a relative wealth of literature on end-users and their perceptions as recipients of change within the demand end of the market, research on professionals and their perceptions as actors in the process of change is limited. Thus, this study looks at the human factor in the supply end of the market by bringing professionals’ perceptions to the forefront in its investigation of barriers to the implementation and uptake of nearly zero-energy housing in practice. As part of the project entitled Housing 4.0 Energy: Affordable and Sustainable Housing through Digitization, data were collected through a focus group and semi-structured interviews with housing professionals in Kilkenny, Ireland. Descriptive coding, inferential coding, and fact tracing revealed several identified barriers to be perceptions and not actual barriers to nearly zero-energy housing. Additionally, information dissemination and assimilation between policy and industry was identified as an overarching barrier. Therefore, the paper ends with recommendations to reduce delay factors at the supply end of the market, thus contributing to closing the gap between the development of policies and their implementation

In 2024 zal naar verwachting de Blankenburgverbinding gereedkomen, waardoor de A20 bij Vlaardingen en de A15 bij Rozenburg met elkaar worden verbonden. Deze nieuwe verbinding zal niet alleen leiden tot een verbetering van de bereikbaarheid in het omliggende gebied, maar zal mogelijk ook gevolgen hebben voor de bevolkingsontwikkeling, de werkgelegenheid en de woningmarkt. [...]

In 2018, the average number of occupants per dwelling is steadily decreasing, creating a demand for small, affordable housing. According to European Union energy targets, new small homes should be energy efficient. However, data clearly shows that energy efficient homes are mostly unaffordable and there is an urgent need to design and build small affordable zero energy homes. However, a sustainable business model for small affordable zero energy homes has not yet been developed in European countries. The Housing 4.0 Energy project explores the development of affordable zero energy homes in three countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland. This study explores the business models and potential for scaling up the five schemes (Ireland operates three schemes in different counties). The results of this study may be useful to practitioners, policy makers, and small families facing the problem of affordable zero energy homes. The Dutch scheme targets a market of self-builders of low-middle income households. In the Flemish scheme, non-profit social rental agencies provide the houses for low-income groups. In Ireland, local authorities provide social housing for applicants on waiting lists. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is used to analyse the business models for affordable zero energy homes in these countries. Data is collected mainly through interviews and focus group meetings with experts. The results show that all schemes create environmental, social and economic sustainability values for low/low-middle income households by providing energy efficient, comfortable and affordable homes. Several barriers to the upscaling of these homes were identified, such as cultural barriers in design, building materials, as well as legal and technical barriers. The technical barriers can be addressed in a relatively short time, but overcoming cultural and behavioural barriers might be more difficult. Engaging government, market participants, and providers can accelerate the development of these schemes. Examples of different schemes and the courses developed during the project can be used to disseminate the results of the business models of these schemes. Finally, the business models of the schemes can be modified and adopted for the development of affordable zero energy homes in other countries.

Mede als gevolg van grote problemen op de woningmarkt en in het bijzonder het grote woningtekort is er tegenwoordig weer veel aandacht voor het wonen in zowel de pers als de politiek. Na een jarenlange focus op meer marktwerking en decentralisatie lijkt de rijksoverheid recent weer bereid om meer verantwoordelijkheid te nemen. In deze bijdrage proberen we deze omslag te duiden door achtereenvolgens de belangrijkste problemen op de woningmarkt te analyseren, evenals de ontwikkeling van het rijksbeleid en mogelijke oplossingen voor de ontstane problemen. Daarbij ligt de nadruk op de rol van de rijksoverheid. We concluderen dat het, gezien de vele ruimteclaims en de grote investeringsopgaven, belangrijk is dat de rijksoverheid de regie in handen neemt en duidelijke keuzes maakt, die vervolgens op regionaal en lokaal niveau uitgewerkt kunnen worden. Door vervolgens de ontwikkelingen goed te monitoren en zo nodig te interveniëren kan het Rijk (bij)sturen op het te behalen resultaat.

After more than ten years since the introduction of Near Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs), the transition towards a zero-energy new built environment can still be considered slow despite European Member States’ various efforts to facilitate, promote and accelerate their implementation and uptake. The barriers to sustainability measures in general and NZEBs in particular have been extensively explored by academic literature and despite different research scopes, perspectives, locations and times, previous studies have reached similar outcomes. Similar barriers were perceived by different housing professionals in different geographic contexts and these same barriers also persisted through time. This study argues that while this could be interpreted as a validation of outcomes, it also underlines a limitation resulting from a general level of analysis. Thus, this study contributes to the discussion by adopting a context-specific approach in its investigation of barriers to near zero-energy housing in small towns in Flanders, Ireland and the Netherlands. The data was collected from a series of focus groups with housing professionals in Leuven, Kilkenny and Almere. Through descriptive coding, this study’s outcomes echoed previous research findings. However, a closer look through inferential coding resulted in the identification of 21 new contextual barriers leading to the formulation of more specific policy suggestions with a different allocation of precedence that depends on every context

In 2015 the Housing Act was revised in order to further regulate the social housing sector in the Netherlands and thereby improve the steering possibilities for the central government to coordinate housing associations. This included local performance agreements for social housing policy obtaining a legal status. By introducing this policy instrument central government seeks to facilitate and ensure the tri-partite cooperation between municipalities, housing associations and tenants’ organisations in order to release funds by housing associations for social benefit. This should improve the position of municipalities and tenants’ organisations in social housing, and improve legitimate policy making. In this paper the main research question is: How are local performance agreements implemented targeting increased societal legitimacy in local social housing policy making, and what are its strengths and weaknesses in three selected cases in the Netherlands? A case study research design was used involving three local embedded case studies. As a theoretical framework the Contextual Interaction Theory was used. Data collection involved expert interviews and review of policy documents. Results reveal several weaknesses that impede the implementation of performance agreements, including issues in the broader governance regime and context, as well as issues with the inter-organisational structure and stakeholder interaction regarding the tri-partite cooperation between the key actors. This has to do with the precarious role of the tenants’ organisations in the process, and the local housing policy as the basis of local performance agreements. Results also show that implementation of performance agreements is more difficult in cities with dense urban areas.

In recent years, Chinese housing policies have been shifting from encouraging homeownership toward developing the private rented sector, especially in the superstar cities. Nevertheless, what are the target groups and characteristics of private rental housing in Chinese superstar cities, and whether the private rental housing is capable of meeting private tenants' housing needs remain unclear. This paper attempts to bridge this gap from the tenant perspective by examining the determinants of private tenants' residential satisfaction. We argue that residential satisfaction should be examined within different submarkets. By adopting the Structure of Housing Provision thesis, we identified three main sub-sectors in China's superstar cities, i.e. urban village housing, commercial rented housing, and Long-term Rented Apartment (LTRA). Based on a questionnaire survey in Shenzhen, we examined the characteristics of the three subsectors and tenants living in each sub-sector. Furthermore, we evaluated whether the residential satisfaction levels varied significantly in different sub-sectors and the determinants of residential satisfaction in each sub-sector. The results of an ANOVA showed that tenants living in commercial rented housing and LTRAs were more satisfied than those living in urban village housing. The regression results showed that the determinants of residential satisfaction vary considerably among different sub-sectors. The results of this paper can be useful not only for the landlords to improve tenants' residential satisfaction but also for policy-makers engaged in private rental market development and urban renewal.

This chapter evaluates the Dutch social housing model and its impact on the quality of neighbourhoods. It describes the theoretical debate on the link between affordable housing and planning and the different models for social rental housing. The chapter looks at the changing link between social housing and urban renewal and how social housing has changed from being a solution into being a problem and focuses on the outcome of the Dutch social rental model by looking at the composition of the population of the large cities in the Randstad. There is an ongoing debate in housing studies on the sustainability of such a ‘unitary rental sector’. This means a social rental sector for a broad target group that is in competition with the commercial rental sector. In 2015 a new Housing Act came into force that implied some fundamental changes for urban policy: more targeting of lower-income groups and less emphasis on the urban dimension.

The management of the public rental sector has undergone tremendous change worldwide. Especially in China, given the large supply of public rental housing (PRH) in the short term, the management of PRH (PRHM) has been faced with a series of problems. The existing PRHM is unsustainable and a new scheme has been proposed. In this study we analyze whether this new scheme can solve the former management problems and achieve the reform objectives, so as to explore whether the new scheme can really improve the PRHM. We analyzed the new policy, contracts and bidding documents of 19 pilot projects and interviewed some implementation staffs. We found that the well-intended policy mainly proposed three measures: government procurement, new financial arrangement and guided service contents; but that these measures lack specific financial support. Furthermore, there are very few projects that involve full implementation; most of the projects employed a compromise strategy. In general, the new scheme made progress towards solving some of the existing problems, so even if it is selectively implemented, it is still likely to achieve the reform objectives.

Despite efforts to promote and accelerate the adoption of innovative, affordable, and zero-energy dwelling solutions, the number of dwellings complying with standards such as the EPBD remains relatively low as we reach year 2020. Studies have already explored potential challenges and opportunities to the uptake of such designs. However, despite previous findings and recommendations, the market's response remains slow. Building on existing knowledge and as part of the Housing 4.0 Energy project, this study investigates current financial, cultural, legislative and technical barriers and drivers to the implementation and uptake of small, innovative, affordable, zero-energy dwellings in small towns in Belgium and Ireland. Focus groups gathering housing providers, decision makers, stakeholders, and contractors were conducted in Leuven and Kilkenny. Outcomes revealed that participants' general perceptions around barriers and drivers are similar between the two countries and are validated by previous research findings. However, a closer look at context specific barriers reveals considerable differences. The identification of these contextual differences enables a better apprehension of the current situation in every location leading to the formulation of context specific recommendations and a better allocation of precedence. Thus, this paper demonstrates the importance of context specific investigations not only in the identification of challenges to energy efficiency innovations but also in establishing more effective implementations.

De woningproductie in Nederland blijft ver achter bij de ontwikkeling van de woningvraag. Het gevolg is een oplopend woningtekort en sterk stijgende prijzen, vooral in stedelijke gebieden in het westen van het land. In deze bijdrage gaan we in op de vraag wat er toch aan de hand is met de woning(bouw)markt. Na een analyse van de problemen presenteren we enkele mogelijke oplossingsrichtingen.

The Netherlands is not known for the occurrence of earthquakes. This is, however, a hot topic in the province of Groningen. Because of gas extraction, this area suffered from more than 1000 earthquakes. Most of them are not very intensive, but also bigger earthquakes of between 2 and 3 on the scale of Richter have been measured. In the last few years, thousands of houses are damaged, house prices have dropped, and the liveability is at stake. This paper pays attention to the effects of these earthquakes on the functioning of the housing market and the quality of life in the region. An extensive survey was conducted, focus groups were organized, housing market statistics were analyzed, and several econometric models were evaluated to give an answer to the question in which way the earthquakes influence the local housing market and the liveability.