Marietta Haffner

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Architecture and the Built Environment

The Renovation Wave is the latest addition to a series of European measures designed to incentivise investment in a low-carbon built environment. In terms of residential retrofits, research has focused on how structural measures can reduce costs through energy savings and improve affordability in the long term. However, it is less clear how retrofi...

This chapter introduces the main concepts and relationships, and analyses how housing policy and scholarly understandings thereof have fared over the last two decades. Reflective of the ‘division of work’ in the broader field of housing studies – with most researchers specializing in policies and regulation pertaining to one tenure – we discuss sub...

In the past decade, Public Rental Housing (PRH) has become the program of providing affordable rental housing to low- and middle-income households in China. Even though descriptions of the governance results are numerous, the previous studies are not underpinned by a theoretical foundation from a governance perspective, nor have they empirically ex...

Het is nog maar vier jaar geleden dat Stef Blok aan het einde van zijn termijn als Minister van Wonen verkondigde dat de woningmarkt af was. Deze conclusie mag als voorbarig beschouwd worden. Immers, de huizenprijzen zouden blijven doorstijgen tot de dag van vandaag, zelfs tijdens de pandemie. We stonden aan de vooravond van een dubbele aanbodprobl...

Inclusionary housing (IH) is a regulatory instrument adopted by local governments in many countries to produce affordable housing by capturing resources created through the marketplace. In order to assess whether it is efficient, scholarly attention has been widely focused on its evaluation. However, there is a lack of studies evaluating IH from a...

The transition of the baby boomer bulge into old age and their increasing longevity will lift the numbers of elderly in residential aged care. Population ageing and associated fiscal pressures have motivated governments to shift responsibility for the financing of aged care to the individual. We consider policies that include owner-occupiers’ housi...

In recent decades, government intervention in welfare states has witnessed a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’: policy making shifted from hierarchical government steering to mixed forms involving government, market and civic actors. Such terminology has also entered Chinese policy language on public rental housing (PRH) provision. To unravel...

In den Euro-Ländern wohnten im Durchschnitt etwa 66% der Bevölkerung in 2017 im Eigenheim. Das Kapitel porträtiert Besitzverhältnisse und Überlastungen durch Wohnkosten und stellt die steuerliche Förderung des Eigenheims in den Fokus. Das Kapital stellt abschließend fest, daß die Wohneigentumsbildung zwar nicht nur, aber zu einem wesentlichen Teil...

The 2016 Pact of Amsterdam launched the Urban Agenda for the European Union. Within its framework, partnerships of urban authorities, Member States and other stakeholders have developed action plans to achieve better funding, better knowledge and better regulation for the priority theme of their partnership. This study provides an overview and crit...

The literature on housing affordability has grown rapidly since Hulchanski [1995, p. 489. The concept of housing affordability: six contemporary uses of the housing expenditure-to-income ratio. Housing Studies, 10(4), 471–491] declared that housing researchers should avoid using the term since it is not a robust concept and measurement often lacks...

Dutch pension and housing markets occupy a unique position in the European Union. Historically, they have a universal rather than a selective bedrock. In a situation where most jobs were permanent, the pension system produced adequate retirement income across the (working) population. While income levels were irrelevant for the allocation of social...

This report and its Annex present the results of the research project “Promoting the contribution of private savings to pension adequacy: Integrating residential property with private pensions in the EU” led by iff, institute for financial services, Hamburg. Financial support by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion i...

This Annex together with the final report present the results of the research project “Promoting the contribution of private savings to pension adequacy: Integrating residential property with private pensions in the EU” led by iff, institute for financial services, Hamburg. Financial support by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs...

In many Western countries the edges of ownership form a neglected zone between the majority tenure, sustainable owner-occupation, and the minority experience, long-term renting. In these tenure-divided societies, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to the zone of transition between styles of accommodation, not least because the...

Housing wealth dominates the asset portfolios of the older population in Australia and many other countries. Given the anticipated spike in fiscal costs associated with population ageing, there is growing policy interest in housing equity withdrawal (HEW) to finance living needs in retirement. This paper sheds light on homeowners’ perceptions of th...

In 2006, responsibility for implementing the Dutch housing allowance system was transferred from the Ministry of Housing to the Tax Authority. It has since been renamed, and is now known as the ‘rent rebate system’. A number of dilemmas have become evident since the 2006 changes. Attention has shifted to how to implement the system effectively: how...

This report examines the inputs, outputs and outcomes of the public sector in 36 countries (including the EU-28) over the period 1995-2012. We study two sectors – education and health – in some detail, while taking a more general look at the sectors social safety, housing, social security and public administration, and a preliminary look at the sec...

Belgium devolved administrative and budgetary responsibility for the favourable income tax treatment of owner-occupied dwellings to its administrative regions in July 2014. This change allowed the regions to redesign their housing-related tax instruments. This paper examines a tax policy reorientation of the Flemish Region. It specifically applies...

In this exploratory paper, we investigate whether there are links between institutional context and the development of markets in home equity conversion that are based on financial instruments facilitating mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW). Using secondary data and literature sources from six countries (Australia, UK, USA, Netherlands, Finland and G...

In an era of population ageing, the primary home is increasingly viewed as a personal resource that can perform a pension role in retirement. This article assesses the extent to which Australians aged 45 years and over withdraw housing equity through in situ mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW), downsizing and selling up. We find that the incidence of...

In this Briefing Paper the focus is on the EU-SILC and on the questions: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the pan-European data set EU-SILC, which stands for ‘European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions’? How useful is this database when making international housing comparisons? The examples in this paper are based on my exper...

Energy costs have been rising as well as rents, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere, leading to situations commonly described as ‘housing poverty’ and ‘fuel or energy poverty’. A dwelling may be unaffordable on at least two counts: rents or energy costs that are ‘too high’ in relation to income (excluding cases of ‘too low’ income). This paper me...

In recent decades, housing affordability has been increasingly linked to household financial outcomes where high housing costs relative to income are perceived to negatively affect financial well-being. However, the traditional measure of housing affordability in Australia is housing stress, which is subject to widespread criticism as an inadequate...

Tenants in the Netherlands not only pay relatively more for their housing consumption than owner-occupiers, but also appear to be subject to Schwabe's law on rent. This law states that households with a lower income are confronted with higher rent-to-income ratios than households with a higher income. In the Netherlands most rents are regulated, so...

This project uncovers the uses, risks of and barriers to housing equity withdrawal (HEW) by older home owners aged 45 years and over via three alternative mechanisms: in situ mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW), downsizing and selling up. Its overall objective is to provide an evidence base for policies and programs aimed at maximising the availabilit...

Tasan-Kok T., Groetelaers D. A., Haffner M. E. A., van der Heijden H. M. H. and Korthals Altes W. K. Providing cheap land for social housing: breaching the state aid regulations of the single European Market?, Regional Studies. European Union member states are not permitted to provide aid that will distort competition by favouring certain undertaki...

This Positioning Paper is the first output of a project that aims to uncover the uses, financial costs and risks of housing equity withdrawal (HEW) via alternative mechanisms by older Australians. By HEW, we are specifically referring to any mechanism that homeowners use in order to convert some or all of the illiquid equity held in their primary h...

This article analyses the changing role of the private rental sector in (Western) Europe. It shows that after decades of decline, the private rental sector is now again gaining ground in at least some European countries. This apparent revival of the private rental sector is often enhanced by government interventions, such as rent deregulation and t...

Cross-national comparative housing research examines similarities and differences in housing situations in more than one country, and it compares by applying research methods to questions or hypotheses. The aims of comparative research are frequently policy orientated, including searching for ideas about the transferability of policy ideas from one...

Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in the United States are privately owned financial corporations which operate under a public (federal) charter. They were created by the Congress in order to enhance credit availability to specific sectors of the economy: housing finance, agriculture, and education. The mortgage market in crisis in the Great...

This study explores the role of housing expenses and subsidies with respect to income distribution in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) and the Netherlands in 2005–2006. It analyses income poverty and inequality by comparing equivalent disposable income before and after housing expenses with a relative poverty threshold and the Gini coefficie...

Housing policies in many countries have become more market orientated as the role of governments has shifted from the direct supply and funding of non-market housing towards the role of a regulator and facilitator. Central to this development is the notion that providers of social housing have to become more competitive. Arguably, these social hous...

In this article, the methodological strengths and weaknesses of two common housing affordability indicators—the expenditure-to-income ratio and the residual income—are discussed, using data for the Belgian region of Flanders and the Netherlands. Affordability standards are used in order to distinguish the group facing affordability problems. In cas...

Rent control, or rent regulation, aims to keep private rental housing affordable and accessible for tenants. Rent controls are also motivated by a desire to assist the disadvantaged in what are believed to be imperfectly competitive markets. However, from a traditional economic point of view, rent regulation will not achieve these aims. The costs s...

Recently housing affordability has reached the agenda in Flanders and the Netherlands, giving a good reason to present a review of the concept of affordability and different definitions. The concept of short-term affordability, which is concerned with financial access to a dwelling and is based on cash flows, is combined with the concept of long-te...

The paper will argue that the meaning and definition of private renting varies from country to country, and this presents a series of challenges for comparative research. It will demonstrate a lack of equivalence between 'private rented housing sectors' in western Europe and show that this arises from variations in definitions, property rights, the...

This paper aims to make a contribution to the debate about the meaning of competition as applied to social housing and the usefulness of a competitive paradigm as a comparative analytical tool. Social housing providers have been asked to become more competitive and more market orientated in Europe. But what exactly do these terms mean and what are...

Housing became more expensive in the Netherlands between 2002 and 2006, a trend which has been demonstrated using various measures of affordability. The expenditure-to-income ratios calculated for households confirm that the average cost of housing rose for tenants and homeowners, as well as for most income groups generally. This contribution analy...

Statistics on housing in EU countries, including historical time series

This article analyzes the function, design, and effects of a method to assess the performance of housing associations in the Netherlands. First, the roles of performance assessment are discussed from three perspectives: the association as an agent for the central government; the association as a facilitator of local stakeholders’ needs; and the ass...

This paper will set out the concept of a 'gap' between the social rented and market rented housing sector. This will be examined with respect to one aspect of competition between the two sectors in England, France, the Netherlands and Germany: substitutability. The analysis will involve an examination of the extent to which tenants can choose betwe...

Urban renewal in the Netherlands has become a matter of ‘networking’. Housing associations, Dutch social landlords, became financially independent in the 1990s and have a responsibility in urban renewal. It is a joint responsibility in which local authority, social landlord and tenants are dependent on each other. This situation is rather new and n...

In an attempt to promote efficiency and consumer choice, many governments in Europe have in recent years required social housing organisations to be more market-orientated and competitive. Competition, however, is being discussed and implemented without any detailed examination of what is meant by the term 'competition' outside a conventional 'mark...

In deze studie brengen we de invloed van de woonsituatie op de inkomensongelijkheid in beeld, voor zowel Vlaanderen als Nederland anno 2005/6. We analyseren de inkomensongelijkheid aan de hand van het besteedbare huishoudinkomen voor en na de woonuitgaven. De belangrijkste vaststelling is dat de inkomensongelijkheid in beide ‘landen’ aanzienlijk to...

In deze bijdrage brengen we in kaart hoe de Nederlandse praktijk van lage grondprijzen voor corporatiewoningen zich verhoudt tot de Europese regelgeving over staatssteun. Is de huidige praktijk toelaatbaar en zo nee, hoe kan wel worden voldaan aan de Europese regels?

The once clear demarcation of funding and roles of the social and market rental sectors seems to have become blurred in a number of European countries. Social renting is no longer provided only by non-profit organisations. The extent to which a gap can be identified between the social and market rental sectors in six countries in north-west Europe...

Residential mortgage securitization on the secondary mortgage market in the United States has grown enormously since 1970. This contribution describes the growth, especially the growth of the large special circuit housing finance system within the secondary mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of it. Different housing financ...

In the past decade the strong increase of the ageing population in the Netherlands has become a topic of political discussion. How to provide an income for the ever more ageing population in the context of an ever decreasing productive/working life span is one of the important topics in this discussion. The wealth that is incorporated in owner-occu...

The private rental sector has been declining in many European countries. In describing the decline of the private rental sector, it is often suggested that a causal relationship exists between the decrease in private renting and rent control. The assumption is that the stricter the form of rent control, the greater the decrease in private renting l...

"This article discusses the application of the concept of competition to social housing in Europe. A distinction is made between competition amongst social housing suppliers and between social housing organisations and commercial suppliers of housing. The competitiveness of social housing is examined using evidence mainly from England and the Nethe...

Social rental housing has once again captured a strong position on the Dutch political agenda. This has happened especially since the European Commission sent a letter to the Dutch government indicating that the Dutch social rental sector was not considered EU-proof from the viewpoint of the European Union's competition policy. The letter coincided...

Onderzoeks uitgevoerd in opdracht van het Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Departement RWO -Woonbeleid. Maart 2007 1 VOORWOORD Voor u ligt één van de resultaten van de onderzoeksopdracht 'Ruimte voor woonbeleid', uitgevoerd door het Kenniscentrum voor Duurzaam Woonbeleid. De zin en waarde van wetenschappelijk onderzoek als basis voor een effe...

Onderzoeks uitgevoerd in opdracht van het Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Departement RWO -Woonbeleid. Maart 2007 VOORWOORD Voor u ligt één van de resultaten van de onderzoeksopdracht 'Ruimte voor woonbeleid', uitgevoerd door het Kenniscentrum voor Duurzaam Woonbeleid. De zin en waarde van wetenschappelijk onderzoek als basis voor een effect...

Housing allowances aim to make rental housing affordable for the recipients. Whether affordability for tenants is achieved in an economically efficient way is the question that is discussed in this essay. Three aspects of efficiency are focused on: disincentives to work, over-consumption of housing and horizontal inefficiency. These topics are tack...

A sharp drop in prices on the home owner market is not only hard to predict but also the reason why many politicians would prefer to implement any tax changes gradually, if at all. Against this backdrop, the present study explores the relationship between a change in the personal income tax treatment of home ownership and a change in house prices....

This contribution evaluates ways to compare financially renting and owning in order to measure tenure neutrality. Tenure neutrality is defined as the situation in which the consumer is financially indifferent between owning and renting a dwelling. This paper discusses the possibilities of defining tenure neutrality via government spending on housin...

This paper examines how personal income taxation has changed across countries and whether and how this has affected the taxation of owner-occupied dwellings. It presents a partial analysis as it focuses on imputed rent taxation and the mortgage interest deduction. Furthermore, the paper places housing taxation in a wider context by describing diffe...

This article formulates an answer to the followingquestion: Which concept is most suitable to compare the levels ofhousing costs and fiscal subsidies among owner-occupiers and how canthis concept be applied? First, the concepts of housing expenditure anduser costs of capital are evaluated. The preference for the latter conceptis then explained and...

This contribution depicts therecent development of the housing expenditure quotefor various income groups in the social and privaterented sector in six West European countries. Thedevelopment reflects the similar policy efforts inthese countries, not only to reduce the regulatoryand subsidizing role of government but also topromote market mechanism...

This introduction to the special issueon putting comparative housing research intopractice elaborates on how and why internationalcomparative housing research should be conducted. Aclassification made by Oxley is used as a frameworkfor introducing the four contributions about thefinancial aspects of housing to this special issue.

Without Abstract

In this paper the meaning of the term 'housing subsidy' is reviewed and the theoretical and practical problems of measuring the value of housing subsidies and making comparisonsbetween countries is demonstrated.The definitions of both 'subsidy' and 'housing subsidy' are questioned. The paper shows that what is and is not a housing subsidy is often...

In this paper the impact of taxation and arrangements for owner occupiers on household finance expenses are compared. The countries included are the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, the UK and (West) Germany. To achieve this comparison, taxation, subsidies and prevalent financing possibilities for owner occupiers are discussed. The comparison...

Without Abstract

Member states of the European Union are not allowed to grant aid that distorts competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods as this may effect trade between member states. Rules on state aid are laid down in the EC Treaty with the general principle that state aid is not allowed and that unjustified state aid must...

The paper aims to make a contribution to the debate about the relationship between competition and social rental housing provision. Social housing providers are arguably in the process of becoming more competitive and more market orientated in Europe. But what exactly do these terms mean and what are the defining features of competitiveness? In thi...

This research had been carried out at request of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).