Long-term developments in housing policy and research

This chapter introduces the main concepts and relationships, and analyseshow housing policy and scholarly understandings thereof have fared over thelast two decades. Reflective of the ‘division of work’ in the broader field ofhousing studies – with most researchers specializing in policies and regulationpertaining to one tenure – we discuss substantive developments in researchregarding the different tenures commonly found in European welfare states.We elaborate on the idea that what happens in one housing market sectorimpacts on other sectors. Furthermore, we report on recent research arguingthat trends in housing policy are intricately related to changes in welfarestates, but also to broader economic developments. We illustrate changes intenure structure, intersecting with changes in the characteristics of householdstypically living in different tenures. Our conclusion addresses key challengesfor policy and research.