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Selected Online Reading on Housing in the EU

Find a list of selected books, electronic books and articles, online databases, newswires and training sessions to enhance your knowledge from home.

Housing policy

Abstract by the author: Housing is a flash point in many European countries, with protests erupting and citizens voting to wrench properties from big investors. Inequality is driving the explosive debate, as households across the income distribution face very different kinds of challenges and opportunities in today’s unequal housing markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the risks and rewards already present across different subgroups. This housing-generated inequality creates a conundrum for governments that must balance the interests of competing constituencies with complex housing markets, and points to fundamental questions about how to order society.

Abstract by the authors: As suggested by the person-environment fit theory, how older people interact with and modify their housing is an important determinant for their health and well-being. For the first time, this study investigates the constraints of housing modifications innovatively. It finds that promoting housing modification depends not only on older people's affordability emphasised by previous studies but more fundamentally, their recognition of the role of age-friendly housing and the proper timing of modification. Based on a longitudinal survey data of 5719 older people in 12 European countries from 2015 to 2017, we find that older people tend to take “last resort” actions, that is, housing modifications are rare (21.93%) and mostly happen when they are 80 years old and above. In addition, the ordered logit regression shows that the limited scope of housing modification is mainly induced by the poor housing conditions and physical disabilities of older people. Although the age-friendly housing modification has a preventive effect on older individuals, this limited, late, and passive action debases the preventive value of age-friendly housing to the aged population's health. To Europe and developing countries, measures to raise the older people's recognition regarding the benefits, proper time, and scope of housing modifications are suggested in the paper. •How older people interact with and modify housing is important for their health•Housing modifications are rare and mostly happen in people 80 years old and above•Housing modification is mainly induced by poor housing and health conditions•The scope of housing modification is limited•Improve senior's recognition of benefits, proper time, and scope of modifications.

Abstract by the authors: This commentary reflects on the potential of European Union institutions to address the continent’s crisis of housing affordability, which was well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic and has been exacerbated in its wake. Despite having no direct competencies in housing policy, European Union norms and policies shape housing conditions in significant ways. The greater level of public spending on housing renovation enabled by the 2021–2027 multiannual financial framework and NextGeneration European Union funding signals a welcome shift away from austerity. However, investment alone is not enough to advance the right to housing and may even reinforce existing inequalities. Plans like the Renovation Wave and the Affordable Housing Initiative must strive not only for climate neutrality but also for housing cost and tenure neutrality. Beyond pandemic recovery plans, this commentary argues that a more thorough departure from the market-based approach underlying the European Union’s institutionality is needed to tackle the roots of the current housing problematic.

Abstract by the authors: This data-paper presents and describes a consolidated, harmonized, internationally comparable database to quantify the impacts of the housing affordability crisis. Local harmonized indicators allow to examine the unequal spatial patterns of housing affordability across a selection of European cities. This study seeks at informing and mapping the increased and unequal affordability gap, a critical issue for social cohesion and sustainability in metropolitan areas in Europe. We characterize affordability with measures of price (property and rent) and income in a selection of European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs). The methodological goal was to cope with a data gap, i.e. a lack of harmonized spatial data to map and analyze affordability in Europe. This research, conducted in 2018-19 by a European consortium for the ESPON agency, covers 4 countries and one cross-border region: Geneva (Switzerland), Annecy-Annemasse, Avignon and Paris (France), Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Majorca (Spain) and Warsaw, Łódź and Krakow (Poland). We bring insights on how institutional data (i.e. transactions data), can be bridged with unconventional data (“big data” harvested on line) to provide a cost-effective and harmonized data collection effort that can contribute to compare affordability within cities (between neighborhoods) and across cities, using various geographical levels (1km square-grid, municipalities, FUA). We present the structure of the database, how it has been constructed in a reproducible manner; we document the validation process, the strengths and limitations of the data provided, and document the reproducibility of the workflow.

Abstract by the authors: This article will explore the extent to which a focus on the ‘local’ can tell us something meaningful about recent developments in the governance of displaced migrants and refugees. Taking a multi-sited approach spanning cases in the south and north of Europe, we consider how the challenge of housing and accommodation in particular, a core sector of migrant reception and integration, can shed light on the ways local and city level approaches may negotiate, and sometimes diverge from, national level policy and rhetoric. While it can be said that despite variation, local authorities are by definition ultimately ‘always subordinate’ (Emilsson, Comparative Migration Studies, 3: 1-17, 2015: 4), they can also show evidence of ‘decoupling’ across geographies of policy delivery (Pope and Meyer, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 3: 280–305, 2016: 290). This article traces how possible local variations in different European cases are patterned by ground-level politics, local strategic networks, and pre-existing economic resources in a manner that is empirically detailed through the study of housing.

Abstract by the author: Throughout Europe, reports of problematic housing situations for young adults have increasingly emerged during the last decades. This paper explores housing experiences among young adults living in a disadvantaged area of Malmö, Sweden, taking the concept of housing inequality as its point of departure. The results suggest how young adults become stuck in between a number of parallel housing markets, leaving them no choice other than the illegal rental market - characterized by steep rents, insecure conditions and precarious quality. The paper advances a multidimensional understanding of housing inequality, as the limited access and poor quality of housing that young adults experience reproduces inequality in a broader sense: It influences potential wealth accumulation, the possibility to lead independent lives, the access to work and education, and thereby, the young adults' health and well-being.

Abstract by the authors: Doling (2006, A European Housing Policy? European Journal of Housing Policy, 6(3), 335–349) characterized the intervention of the EU in the field of housing as a ‘stealth policy’, arguing that while the EU has no formal competence in this policy area, it has de facto conditioned national housing policies. This suggests that housing policy is a particularly interesting case for the study of formal and informal modes of multilevel governance. However, European comparative studies about housing policy have almost exclusively focused either on the national or local characteristics of housing systems. In this paper we explore the connections between the development of Portuguese housing policies in the last four decades, on the one side, and EU programmes and documents on the other. We will show how the dynamics of Portuguese housing policy reflected the fluctuations of EU agenda. In doing so, we aim at (i) exploring the history of EU ‘stealth housing policy’ in a moment of re-emergence of housing as a defining theme of EU agenda; and (ii) providing a more accurate characterization of domestic recent general trends and processes through a multi-scalar gaze.

Abstract by the author:  Taking its point of departure from Mariana Mazzucato’s The Entrepreneurial State (2014), this article examines the French state as an innovator in the realm of green housing. Drawing upon field research into the design and reception of eco-neighbourhoods, the author explores the French state’s experiments in ‘green culture’, asking what ‘improving daily life’, a stated objective of the ÉcoQuartier programme, means to planners and residents? Do ÉcoQuartier inhabitants become more environmentally conscious in their domestic practices? There are numerous parallels with France’s post-war experiments in mass housing that prompt us to ask questions about the French state’s experimental method. This article argues that the innovation of the eco-neighbourhood reveals that the state’s belief in spatial determinism remains strong and that the ÉcoQuartier initiative indicates that some, but not all, of the important lessons from the mass housing experiments of the 1950s and 60s have been learned.

Abstract by the authors:  This article belongs to the special cluster, “Politics and Current Demographic Challenges in Central and Eastern Europe,” guest-edited by Tsveta Petrova and Tomasz Inglot. We explore housing finance and policy in East Central Europe to understand the connection between housing, in particular independent household formation, and the demographic crisis. The combination of high debt-free homeownership rates with illiquid housing finance and limited rental markets produces conditions where housing restricts independent household formation and likely has a restrictive effect on fertility. We first assess the housing regime type in East Central Europe and demonstrate that it closely corresponds to the “difficult housing regime” in Southern Europe, which has well-established negative effects on independent household formation and fertility. Then we present a detailed case study of Hungary, which is a country with very low fertility rates and substantial changes in housing finance and policy over time. In particular, the issue was recently politicized through housing policies centered on household formation to counter the demographic crisis. We present a detailed analysis of policies related to access to housing for young adults through increased access to markets or state housing support schemes. These policies attempted to reduce dependence on families, but after the crisis, we find that these policies reinforce, rather than challenge, dependence on families for housing solutions, thereby limiting independent household formation. While these policies may serve a rhetorical role demonstrating a state response to the demographic crisis, we claim that their impact on fertility can be at most minimal because of stringent restrictions in access that concentrates on upper-middle-income households and limited financial commitment.

Abstract by the authors: Housing has important economic, political, and social ramifications for Western Europe and beyond. Despite its importance in shaping economic and political outcomes, however, housing remains in the peripheral vision of major comparative political economy debates. This introduction to the special issue accomplishes four objectives. First it demonstrates how housing defies current political economy typologies by failing to conform to their theoretical and empirical predictions. Second it summarises the current state of housing research within political science, which still remains in its infancy. Third it highlights how the contributions in this special issue expand our understanding of how housing causes and is shaped by political and economic outcomes in Europe. Finally, this introduction concludes by outlining how the special issue contributions demonstrate housing’s importance for the welfare state, political preferences and electoral shifts, regulatory and redistributive policies, and financialisation and household indebtedness in Europe.

Abstract by the authors: As buildings throughout their life cycle account for circa 40% of total energy use in Europe, reducing energy use of the building stock is a key task. This task is, however, complicated by a range of factors, including slow renewal and renovation rates of buildings, multiple non-coordinated actors, conservative building practices and limited competence to innovate. Drawing from academic literature published during 2005–2015, this article carries out a systematic review of case studies on low energy innovations in the European residential building sector, analysing their drivers. Specific attention is paid to intermediary actors in facilitating innovation processes and creating new opportunities. The study finds that qualitative case study literature on low energy building innovation has been limited, particularly regarding the existing building stock. Environmental concerns, EU and national and local policies have been the key drivers; financial, knowledge and social sustainability and equity drivers have been of modest importance; while design, health and comfort and market drivers have played a minor role. Intermediary organisations and individuals have been important through five processes: (1) facilitating individual building projects, (2) creating niche markets, (3) implementing new practices in social housing stock, (4) supporting new business model creation and (5) facilitating building use post-construction. The intermediaries have included both public and private actors, while local authority agents have acted as intermediaries in several cases.

Abstract by the author: This paper examines the potential for the European budget to be used to contribute to housing investment. It fìnds that the budget is sufficiently large to play a role in the countries where the budget is concentrated, although it could be made more progressive. Case studies reveal that the current 'allocative' purpose of the Structural Funds, combined with a misinterpretation of 'subsidiarity', largely prevents their use for housing investment. Together with the principle of 'additionality', the current budget rules are shown to have the potential to cause 'welfare waste', which could be relieved either by moving to a wholly redistributive budget or by amending existing rules to allow funds to be used for housing investment when this contributes to economic regeneration.

 

Collaborative Housing

Introduction: Since the 2000s many European countries have seen the re-emergence of a range of collective self-organized and participatory forms of housing provision. These include resident-led cooperatives, cohousing, Community Land Trusts (CLTs), and different types of community self-help and self-build housing initiatives. While the idea of collective self-organization in housing has a long tradition, this recent wave of housing initiatives features new aspects, and aims to address pressing issues in today’s society. The latter include, amongst others, concerns for wider social inclusion and cohesion as well as affordability and higher environmental sustainability standards. In this Special Issue (SI), we refer to these types of housing practices in terms of “collaborative housing”.

Abstract by the authors: This article reviews a special type of collaborative housing that has emerged in the German housing market in response to the growing need for urban housing and increasing focus on active and networking housing communities and stable neighbourhoods. Joint building ventures are projects in which private individuals jointly establish residential property. However, the academic literature on this issue is underdeveloped. To foster a better understanding of the topic, this article focuses specifically on detecting the strengths and weaknesses of this type of joint building venture and its contribution to a higher homeownership rate. The qualitative interview data were collected between December 2015 and March 2016 in Freiburg, Germany. The findings reveal perceived advantages in terms of supportive networks, customised solutions and potential cost savings, whereas the identified disadvantages are high financial risks, mutual dependencies and personal efforts. Practical implications and avenues for future research are derived.

Abstract by the authors: This article critically examines the governing of ‘sustainable urban development’ through self‐build cohousing groups in Gothenburg and Hamburg. The two case cities have been selected because both are currently involved in major urban restructuring, and have launched programmes to support self‐build groups and cohousing as part of their emphasis on promoting urban sustainable development through this process. Departing from a theoretical discussion on advanced liberal urban governance, focusing in particular on the contemporary discourse on sustainable urban development, we examine the interaction between political institutions, civil society and private actors in the construction of cohousing as a perceived novel and alternative form of housing that may contribute to fulfilling certain sustainability goals. Questions centre on the socio‐political contextualization of cohousing; concepts of sustainability; strategies of, and relations between, different actors in promoting cohousing; gentrification and segregation; and inclusion and exclusion. In conclusion we argue that, while self‐build groups can provide pockets of cohousing as an alternative to dominant forms of housing, the economic and political logics of advanced liberal urban development make even such a modest target difficult, particularly when it comes to making such housing affordable.

Abstract by the authors: This article takes a close look at La Borda, a housing cooperative being developed in Barcelona. The article encompasses the economic and social context in which the housing initiative emerged, the organisational features that define the cooperative, and its origins in the process of urban renewal of the former industrial site of Can Batlló. The article also analyses its current development and its potential for scalability. Drawing on Moulaert's definition of social innovation, the authors argue that La Borda goes beyond the mere provision of housing to include public participation as a key component of the model. The Andel Model for cooperative housing is presented as the main source of inspiration for La Borda's model, including its roots in the social and cooperative economy and the role of the cession of use housing tenure. The article concludes there are reasons to believe La Borda will succeed in providing long-term affordable housing while engaging its residents in its daily management. The authors consider the suitability of La Borda's model elsewhere to be dependent on the economic, social and political context in which it is implemented.

Abstract by the author: Much of the literature on sustainable communities and compact cities calls for higher density housing including multifamily dwellings. Some researchers suggest problems with such dwellings. However, rigorous comparative research on this topic has not been conducted to date. This paper draws on a high quality, comparative data-set, the European Social Survey, to analyse (a) the quality of multifamily dwellings in European urban areas, (b) the characteristics of residents, (c) their life satisfaction compared with those living in detached housing and (d) the relative importance of built form in explaining life satisfaction. One of the main findings from the multivariate analyses is that residing in multifamily housing is not a statistically significant predictor of life satisfaction when you control for standard predictors of life satisfaction and housing and neighbourhood quality. Overall, the findings provide support for both place-based and people-based responses to urban regeneration. Both physical and social regeneration are required, addressing the education/training needs of residents and economic development strategies.

Social Housing

Résumé: La recherche présentée porte sur le traitement social de la sortie de prison concernant le public des femmes, à travers la double perspective des vécus personnels et des pratiques institutionnelles d’hébergement post-carcéral, par le prisme du rapport à l’espace et du concept d’habiter. La question de l’hébergement concernant les femmes sortant de prison renvoie à des logiques et à des enjeux d’acteurs qui la situent aux frontières de la politique pénale, de l’intervention sociale et du genre. À partir d’un public marginal, invisible et hors norme, cette recherche interroge la spécificité et les enjeux de l’hébergement social dans l’espace-temps de transition de la sortie de détention, qui est à la fois fécond et incertain pour des femmes particulièrement isolées et stigmatisées. Elle montre que si l’hébergement social a pour fonction première la mise à l’abri temporaire dans un espace contraint et en partie collectif, le contexte singulier de la sortie de prison engage tous les acteurs dans des rapports complexes et paradoxaux avec l’espace institutionnel. Pour les femmes concernées, les enjeux de cette transition se situent à plusieurs niveaux : s’ancrer après un parcours résidentiel marqué par les ruptures, reconstruire un espace personnel et une intimité, composer avec la présence des autres et se réapproprier une manière d’habiter le monde à partir d’un habiter provisoire.

Abstract by the authors: This article examines the implementation of three of the strategies most commonly used to de-stigmatise social housing neighbourhoods - built environment refurbishment, poverty deconcentration and public image change initiatives - in three predominately social rented neighbourhoods in Dublin, Ireland. This article echoes the consensus in the literature regarding the intractability and complexity of place-based stigma and the difficulties in changing stigmatised reputations once established, but it also reveals that several interventions can help to reduce this problem or prevent it from emerging in the first place. Tenure mixing is effective in combatting external stigma, particularly when employed in new developments, but it can also undermine the internal cohesion of target neighbourhoods. Media campaigns and cultural events helped improve the external perceptions of some of the case study neighbourhoods but were less effective in other cases. Similarly, many built environment adaptions had limited impact on stigma but public space redesign and public transport improvements which increased neighbourhoods' permeability to non-residents were useful in this regard.

Résumé: Cet article étudie les effets de l’institutionnalisation du droit de la concurrence de l’Union européenne sur les politiques de logement social néerlandaises, suédoises et françaises. Cette comparaison permet de mesurer la réduction de la marge de manœuvre financières des bailleurs sociaux induite par la libéralisation progressive du secteur. En analysant les conséquences de cette libéralisation au sein de trois traditions de logement social, il donne à voir la manière dont la Commission européenne et certains acteurs nationaux ont œuvré concomitamment à une extension du champ d’application du droit de la concurrence de l’Union européenne aux politiques nationales de logement. Si cet article montre comment ce droit prive les bailleurs sociaux d’une partie de leurs recettes financières et par là les fragilise financièrement, il pointe cependant des singularités nationales et des possibilités pour certains États de résister partiellement à ces logiques d’affaiblissement.

Extrait: Levier central de l’action publique, le logement social peine à répondre aux attentes actuelles. Il doit faire face à des besoins accrus et fournir une offre plus sociale encore, dans un contexte de hausse des prix qui freine la mobilité des locataires. Le modèle français, qui fait référence au niveau européen, est à l’heure des choix. En Europe, un habitant sur dix dépense plus de 40 % de ses ressources pour se loger. 50 millions ne se chauffent pas correctement et le nombre de sans-abri a explosé au cours de la dernière décennie. Tous indicateurs confondus, la France occupe une médiocre 10e place au palmarès européen de l’exclusion liée au logement. Notre pays compte plus de 1,8 million de demandeurs de logement. Dans les grandes villes, les délais moyens dépassent largement les deux ans d’attente. Pourtant, en 2016, la France enregistrait la programmation de plus de 133 000 nouveaux logements sociaux : le meilleur score depuis plus d’une décennie. En cinq ans, plus de 550 000 logements sociaux ont été programmés. La France consacre plus de 40 milliards d’euros par an pour soutenir les politiques du logement, dont 18 milliards dans les aides à la personne. Ces aides sociales représentent près de 1 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB). C’est davantage qu’en Allemagne et en Espagne (où le secteur locatif est très différent), proche du Danemark et inférieur au Royaume-Uni (près de 1,5 % du PIB). L’effort public français reste certes très relatif au regard de l’ensemble des recettes publiques liées à l’immobilier (taxes sur la construction, les transactions, les transmissions…), mais une réalité s’impose : les résultats ne sont pas à la hauteur des moyens engagés.

Résumé : Depuis une dizaine d’années, en France comme au Québec, la fixation de taux minimum de logements sociaux est devenue l’un des outils privilégiés des pouvoirs publics pour favoriser le développement du parc social. Ces taux sont contraignants en France et incitatifs au Québec mais procèdent de logiques semblables, valorisant la mixité sociale comme objectif d’action publique et insistant sur les « opportunités de développement » que fourniraient les opérations privées, dans un contexte de baisse des financements publics. À partir de terrains réalisés dans deux agglomérations françaises (Nantes et Lille) et une agglomération québécoise (Montréal), il apparaît que l’acceptation du principe d’un « taux minimum de logements sociaux » n’a été concédée par les maires des communes résidentielles et par les promoteurs immobiliers, traditionnels opposants, qu’à la condition implicite d’en restreindre l’accès aux habitants issus de la commune (France) ou aux demandeurs sélectionnés par le réseau coopératif (Québec) ; autrement dit, d’en exclure les populations les plus indésirables et stigmatisées.

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