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To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2006.00699.x Byline: MARIETTA E.A. HAFFNER (1), PETER J. BOELHOUWER (1) Abstract: Abstract Housing allowances aim to make rental housing affordable for the recipients. Whether affordability for tenants is achieved in an economically efficient way is the question that is discussed in this essay. Three aspects of efficiency are focused on: disincentives to work, over-consumption of housing and horizontal inefficiency. These topics are tackled through a discussion that focuses mainly on the principles, but also on some of the outcomes, of the means-tested housing allowance systems in six Western countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden. Conclusions concern the apparent unimportance of the poverty trap or the unemployment trap specifically for rental housing, the concept of notional rent used to tackle over-consumption, and the frequent existence of some form of horizontal inefficiency. Author Affiliation: (1)OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, The Netherlands Article note: Marietta Haffner (M.E.A.haffner@tudelft.nl) and Peter Boelhouwer (P.J.Boelhouwer@tudelft.nl) OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, P.O. Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands.

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]

Compares the impact of taxation and arrangements for owner occupiers on household finance expenses in several countries. Countries examined; Features of the housing expenditure concept; Fiscal treatment of owner occupiers in the countries examined; Non-fiscal financial instruments that reduce housing expenditures.