Housing Policy as a Lever for Change? The Politics of Welfare, Assets and Tenure

Abstract

The housing tenure structure has long been associated with different forms of welfare state capitalism in Western Europe. However, with the rise of owner-occupancy, this association has not been so straightforward. An alternative view is to view housing policies that promote owner-occupancy for households to acquire assets, as an attempt by the state to reform social welfare systems. The politics of welfare reform are related to the discourses of homeownership ideology. The ownership of (housing) assets agenda serves as a means to change the relationship between state, market and individual households. This view is mostly based on the British experience and this paper seeks to broaden it by examining the Netherlands and Spain. The paper shows differences, but also that housing policies play an important role in driving towards or maintaining market-dominated solutions. Housing is used to either reorient towards or maintain a welfare system where asset ownership and market dependency is deemed more appropriate than secure income and public expenditure.

Neoliberalization, Housing Institutions and Variegated Gentrification: How the ‘Third Wave’ Broke in Amsterdam

“…In 2001, the latest Dutch housing memorandum pushed the deregulation, privatization and ownership agenda even further (Van Gent ). It stipulated that 20,000 private rental and 50,000 social‐rental dwellings should become owner‐occupied each year in order to reach a 65% owner‐occupancy rate by 2010 .…”

Mortgage-equity release: the potential of housing wealth for future Dutch retirees

“…Reverse mortgages enable older owner-occupiers to cash in part of their housing wealth while they continue to live in their dwellings. Scholars in the fields of sociology, economics and the multidisciplinary field of housing research are expressing growing interest in the significance of housing wealth in relation to retirement (Chiuri and Jappelli 2010;Costa-Font et al 2010;Doling and Horsewood 2003;Elsinga et al 2007;Kemeny 2005;Malpass 2008;Ronald 2008;Rouwendal 2009;Van Gent 2010;Venti and Wise 2001).…”

Gentrification of peri-urban spaces in France ‒ the surroundings of Nancy

“…The notion of "being among one's own kind", with its connotations of exclusiveness and social differentiation, is applicable here insofar as the inhabitants of these niches of peri-urban gentrification belong to the same socio-professional categories, have attended the same schools and universities, and go to the same associations and leisure clubs. This gentrification process certainly heralds new forms of housing decline -to be analysed in detail -based on the desire to preserve the value of one's own property (see in general Schwartz/Seabrooke 2009;Doling/Ronald 2010;van Gent 2010), in order to guarantee a homogeneous social environment and to ensure the landscape quality of one's living space. The question therefore arises as to whether these peri-urban gentrification niches are, in fact, undergoing a process of "clubbization" (Charmes 2011).…”