Poles Apart? A Comparative Study of Housing Policies and Outcomes in Portugal and Denmark

Abstract

Remarkable differences in housing policies and dominant forms of tenure can be observed across countries. To what extent are these differences dictated by major vested interests, and explained by ideology in the context of broader political and socioeconomic circumstances? Assuming that the comparison between northern and southern European countries has been largely neglected in comparative housing literature, by using the Danish and Portuguese cases I test Kemeny's typology of rental systems to explain the divergence between these two housing realities. The empirical evidence presented in this paper emphasizes the relevance of Kemeny's theories in explaining many of the divergent features of these housing systems, but suggests some adjustments, based upon the differences between Kemeny's theories of dualist rental systems and what was found in the Portuguese case, which aim to expand its explanatory power.

Outcomes of Urban Requalification Under Neoliberalism: A Critical Appraisal of the SRU Model

“…The 1970s was, however, very different in Portugal. In April 1974, a revolution put an end to a dictatorial regime that ruled the country for 41 years , with disappointing results in terms of wages, education, life expectancy, and housing conditions (Alves, 2015(Alves, , 2017, initiating a period of higher government spending on welfare programmes. The political shift occurred, however, in a very adverse macroeconomic and ideological period, characterised by, on the one hand, the shift from the previous consensus (of post-war Keynesian politics) to a neoliberal context of strong confidence in the market.…”

With or without you: models of urban requalification under neoliberalismo in Portugal

“…Neoliberal ideas, which were dominant among policy-makers during this period, framed the new legal and institutional framework designed to boost housing requalification. The sru model, specifically that implemented by Porto Vivo sru, diverged from the fundamental principles and goals of previous public institutions (e. g. cruarb), whose strategies focused on requalification to secure affordable housing in order to maintain less resourceful families in the city centre (Alves 2017a). In contrast, the new wave of entrepreneurial neoliberal urbanism developed by sru claims that gentrification is a necessary urban strategy to bring investment and activities back to the city, disregarding social aspects related to displacement and the increasing commodification of housing.…”

“…introduction Goals that underpin policies in the fields of housing and urban requalification, as well as the policy instruments through which these policies are carried out, have been problematised from numerous perspectives. Regarding the mismatch between policy goals and their outputs, Elsinga (2017, 149) argues that "many current housing policies are based on wrong (explicit or implicit) assumptions", while, in a study of the Portuguese case, Alves (2017a) questions the rationality of policies that in countries with high levels of income inequality and poverty support the commodification of housing and the development of debt-driven ownership. Likewise, Mendes (2014) and Queirós (2015) question the morality of strategies of urban renewal that, under adverse socio-economic circumstances, use housing as an investment asset within a globalised financial market.…”

Comparative planning and housing studies beyond taxonomy

“…Comparative housing studies (see, for different perspectives, Harloe, 1995;Kemeny, 2001;Alves, 2017;Di Feliciantonio and Aalbers, 2017) have focused on two main dimensions: the composition of housing systems (e.g. types of tenure, weight of public/private/non-profit sectors, quality of the built environment); and (national) policy approaches.…”