Amsterdam in the 21st century: Geography, housing, spatial development and politics

Residential Segregation in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Scalable Individualised Neighbourhoods

“…Moreover, in contrast to the social housing estates in other European countries, social housing in the Netherlands is relatively evenly dispersed across cities (Friedrichs et al ), and is less stigmatised. Because of the role social housing plays in the Netherlands, the link between people’s incomes and their housing conditions is weak in the country in general, and especially in Amsterdam, where 67 per cent of all housing is subsidised (Savini et al ).…”

“…An additional explanation for our findings is that in recent decades, Amsterdam has been undergoing a process of gentrification that has been growing in intensity, and has been stimulated in part by the city’s urban development policies. Since the 1980s, Amsterdam’s centrally located neighbourhoods have gradually changed from being predominantly working‐class neighbourhoods to being mixed‐income districts that also increasingly attract and retain middle‐income families with children (Boterman ; Savini et al ). Because Amsterdam is the national hub for financial and business services and for large multinational companies, the city has become increasingly attractive to highly‐skilled expats whose residential preferences are largely in line with those of highly‐skilled Dutch natives (Sleutjes & Boterman ).…”

“…The increasing share of people with tertiary education in the central parts of the city can be seen as a sign of the gentrification trend. This (planned) gentrification process is expected to further exacerbate the spatial divide between the central and the peripheral parts of the city (Hochstenbach & van Gent ; Savini et al ), and has already changed the relationship between Amsterdam and its surrounding region. As people with lower income levels or migrant backgrounds have been moving to the surrounding region at the same time as people with higher levels of income and education have been moving to the city, the traditional spatial division – that is, the understanding that the city was primarily a place for low‐income groups and migrants to live while suburban areas provided housing for middle and high‐income groups – has vanished (Musterd & van Gent ).…”

“…Although units are generally allocated to low‐income households, tenants cannot be evicted if their income increases. Especially in cities with a tight housing market, such as Amsterdam, many people continue to live in attractive social rented apartments even though they are no longer part of the target group (Bolt et al ; Savini et al ). The large size and the diversity of the Dutch social rented sector help to explain why socio‐economic segregation levels in Dutch cities are much lower than they are in cities in, for example, the UK (Murie & Musterd ) or Belgium (Kesteloot & Cortie ), where the social rented sector is smaller and spatially more concentrated.…”

Identifying Distributive Injustice Through Housing (Mis)Match Analysis: The Case of Social Housing in Amsterdam

“…These types of units in IJburg provide an alternative for middle-class families to move into single-family housing within city borders instead of moving to more distant suburbs (Boterman, Karsten, and Musterd 2010). Major parts of the area outside of the A10 ringway and north of the river IJ have not experienced significant property value increases, which may lead to a growing divide and increasing polarization (Savini et al 2016). Parts of this outer ringway area have been subject to different place-based policies and large scale restructuring programmes from the 1990s onwards (Aalbers 2011;Musterd and Ostendorf 2008).…”