Demolition of private housing stock in the Netherlands, volume and motives

Abstract

This paper contains the results of a first explorative search into the demolition and
demolition motives of the privately owned housing stock in the Netherlands, particularly
the owner-occupied sector. Compared with the rented mass housing stock, the ageing
privately owned stock is often neglected. The absence of obvious large scale social and
structural problems does not attract the attention of policy makers and researchers. As a
result little is known about management and maintenance motives and even less about
demolition motives of the owners. Following our survey of the demolition of social
housing stock, we tried to get a first view on the demolition of owner-occupied dwellings.
The paper gives a concise overview of the available demolition statistics. Based on a
conceptual framework we suggest case studies for further research and analysis.