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This paper answers the question why the Dutch state has gone from vigorously stimulating private-rental growth and liberalization to actively restricting the tenure. Answering this question is important in understanding an emergent wave of more restrictive, or even "post-neoliberal" housing policies across countries. This paper presents an analysis of the changing private-rental politics in the period following the Great Financial Crisis, combined with a quantitative study of renters' housing outcomes. The central argument is that policies promoting private-rental growth and liberalization and the subsequent turn restrictive policies are both outcomes of the state seeking to balance the property-led accumulation with middle-class residential demands. Supportive policies were the result of a presumed alignment of the interests of capital, the state and the middle classes, but ongoing liberalization has undermined middle-class housing affordability – revealing a key tension between capital and middle-class interests. This tension triggered new, more restrictive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy saving is an explicit goal of housing retrofitting in both the Netherlands and China. Retrofit providers expect to achieve this goal by applying insulation to apartment buildings and improvements in heating, cooling and ventilation. The aim of this paper is to explore both conceptually and empirically the interactions between householders and retrofit providers. Interaction activities are conceptualized in a framework of overlapping practices of retrofitting and everyday life. Empirical material is derived from interviews with retrofit providers and householders in the Netherlands and China. This paper shows that full energy saving potential in housing retrofitting fails to be accomplished, due to a limited involvement of householders at the consumption junctions in retrofit processes. Central to this failure are the limited options for residents to share pre-retrofit living experiences, to test future housing equipment beforehand and to customize retrofit packages. Also post-retrofit educational support, evaluation and monitoring is falling short to engage householders in their appropriation of their retrofitted apartment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The private rental sector (PRS) is making a surprising comeback. A central argument in our paper is that we see the rise of PRS and the associated stagnation of homeownership as springing from the contradictions inherent to financialized homeowner societies. Rather than a feature of either mature or late homeowner societies, contradictions of the promotion of homeownership through the expansion of mortgage markets paved the way for a revival of the PRS. Our case is the Netherlands, but our argument has a wider remit. We sketch the dominant trends in Dutch housing policy and present an overview of the rise of PRS and Buy-To-Let in Dutch cities. We identify how housing policies and realities have driven a shift from a debt-driven to a wealth-driven model of financialization, in which the demand for PRS as an investment class and as a place to live has become central. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When asked to explain how they acquired a home middle-class households often forward a series of coincidences. This paper shows that what is experienced as sheer luck may actually be explicable by taking into account the various forms of capital people command. In this paper theories of Bourdieu and De Certeau are applied to the housing market and are used to explore the strategies and tactics people apply to acquire a home. For this study I draw on in-depth semi-structured interviews carried out in Copenhagen, Denmark and Amsterdam, the Netherlands among middle-class households. This paper shows that in order to explain access to housing it is necessary to investigate housing market practices and include other forms of capital than merely financial, such as for example social networks, embodied taste, and knowledge of the legal and institutional context. It is suggested that the way in which class is spatially produced tends to be working differently for various fractions of the middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The environment of Dutch housing associations is changing rapidly. These social landlords are faced with various problems, such as disturbance in the housing market, the complexity of inner city regeneration and a considerable growth in the number of elderly people. To deal with these problems, housing associations are obliged to deploy their existing resources and develop new ones. For that purpose they are increasingly forced to co-operate with other partners. As a consequence organizations become more and more involved in networks and their boundaries are blurring. However, using the term "network: probably raises more questions than it answers. What is a "network" and why are they coming into existence? To understand these developments this paper will examine the theory of network building. It aims to answer the following two research questions: (i) What is the structure of a network? and (ii) Which new competences can be developed in such a network? After a short introduction to Dutch housing associations and their scope of activities in the first section, the paper discusses the "resource based approach" in general and the concept of "core competences" in particular as part of the network-theory. It then discusses the different forms of co-operation in the network of organizations. The case of Trudo is used to illustrate how a housing association is able to take on new challenges after developing several core competences in new forms of co-operation with several stakeholders in its network. Finally, some concluding remarks and suggestions for further research are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 15 years Dutch housing associations have undergone a transformation from strictly regulated and heavily subsidized organizations to financially and administratively independent enterprises. This transformation has sparked a lively debate on regulation and the role of the government in social housing. There is a broad consensus that something needs to be done about the operations of housing associations in the Netherlands. Hence, their position and performance are a current topic of discussion in the Dutch Parliament. In this paper we examine public management from a network perspective. We envisage the policy environment as a network of players and explore three key concepts: "multiformity", "closed-ness" and "interdependence". The government is not the dominant party in this scenario, but one of several players with their own specific goals and resources. To be sure of a good performance, instruments of governance need to be in tune with the characteristics of the network. This paper discusses the instruments applied in the Dutch social housing network and uses the results of a case study in The Hague to illustrate the efficacy of the network perspective in social housing analyses and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current governance structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While patterns of spatial segregation and concentration of ethnic minority groups in European cities have been well documented, more dynamic data on migration have been rare until now. In particular, little is known about the potential for different kinds of households to escape from poverty areas. Escaping these areas can be important in order to escape unwanted housing and living conditions. The analyses in this paper show that in the Netherlands the chance to escape such poverty neighbourhoods partly depends on ethnic descent: some immigrant groups are less able to escape than are Dutch households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution evaluates ways to compare financially renting and owning in order to measure tenure neutrality. Tenure neutrality is defined as the situation in which the consumer is financially indifferent between owning and renting a dwelling. This paper discusses the possibilities of defining tenure neutrality via government spending on housing, household housing cash flows and household housing costs. The Dutch situation delivers the numerical examples. It is concluded that the user cost of housing would be the only concept with which tenure neutrality truly can be measured. But it appears that theory may be difficult to implement in housing policy. This may also be the main explanation why such little progress has been made in the past three decades. The conclusion is reached that the implementation of the concept of user cost in housing policy is a complex undertaking. More discussion and best case reports are needed about the implementation of user costs in order to better clarify the options and the effects on housing consumption. A good starting point would be, if user costs were monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Esping-Andersen's theory and typology of the welfare state have been widely discussed in international comparative housing research. Most of the debate has been theoretical in nature; empirical applications of the theoretical framework are rare. We have therefore applied Esping-Andersen's typology to the housing system of the Netherlands. The results of this research project are described in this contribution. The paper starts with an outline of the theoretical background of the research project. There follows a description of Esping-Andersen's theory of the welfare state, with its typology of three welfare state regimes. This typology is reinterpreted for the field of housing. The resulting scheme of analysis shows how various welfare state regimes differ on some important housing system aspects. The scheme of analysis is applied to the housing system of the Netherlands. Several relevant aspects of this system, such as the organisation of housing provision, subsidisation, and rent regulation, are analysed. For each of these aspects, the welfare state regime with which it can be best linked is determined. Two epochs are analysed: the 1980s and the 1990s. Consequently, the development in time of the housing system in the Netherlands can be described. Some general conclusions are drawn concerning the applicability of Esping-Andersen's typology of welfare states to the field of housing. We propose a possible modification of this theoretical framework and outline some directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-standard living conditions among migrant workers have become a structural feature all over Europe. Although this has attracted the attention of many scholars, there is a lack of studies on the complex relations between various stakeholders in governing housing. This study fills this gap by analysing this housing issue from a governance network perspective. Through an analysis of policy documents and interviews with twenty-one stakeholders, we investigated institutional and strategic complexities. The results show that decision-making is complicated by unclear institutional accountability patterns and the diverging strategic interests of various stakeholders. The interrelationship between the loosely defined institutional setting (structure) and the varying interests of involved actors (agency) has led to a policy impasse that is difficult to breach. We argue that a reconsideration of existing accountability patterns is needed to reduce sub-standard housing conditions among migrant workers in the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a “behavioural‐cultural” model of the housing market, lifestyle and images of the housing and location end‐product determine individual housing consumption behaviour and residential mobility patterns, and consequently have an effect on buyer/renter demand. On the other hand, in some market contexts a more traditional picture may be more valid. This explorative study reports qualitative evidence on residential location preferences, tastes and intentions of consumers in Randstad, Holland, using open interviews with experts who are real estate and planning professionals, and therefore familiar with the variety of consumer preferences. The results show that, for the majority of housing consumers, the functionality and spaciousness of the house itself matters more than location, and that tangible factors carry more weight than intangible ones when it comes to evaluating the physical surroundings. These findings are indicative when establishing a research agenda aimed at investigating socially inflected housing preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]