Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Housing Policy

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Public Policy

  • 16 Accesses

Definition

Housing policy consists of legislative and executive measures directed at housing planning, supply, availability, conditions and quality. Its main tools are subsidies, taxes and regulation. It covers homeownership, private market rentals, alternative tenancies and social housing, which encompasses public housing and publicly subsidized private housing.

Introduction

Housing is a key pillar of every society. It has a major impact on social peace and integration, citizens’ quality of life and wealth, employment and educational opportunities, social interactions as well as citizenship rights. Public policy regulating the social, economic and political dimensions of housing is therefore crucial for any state and society.

This account adopts an overall perspective of housing in Western democratic societies in the OECD. As housing policy is about counteracting housing problems, the state of national systems and their current crisis will be outlined first (II). Then, the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Application 35014/97, Grand Chamber judgment of 19 June 2006, 2006-VIII GC

    Google Scholar 

  • European Semester, 2019 reports, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/2019-european-semester-country-reports_en.

  • The future of housing: policy scenarios, OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1624, Boris Cournède, Federica De Pace and Volker Ziemann, 2 October 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/0adf02cb-en.

  • Grootboom case: Government of the Republic of South Africa and others vs. Grootboom, 2001 (1) SA 46 (CC), 2000 (11) BCLR 1169 (CC).

    Google Scholar 

  • Housing Policies for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities, How National Governments Can Deliver Affordable Housing and Compact Urban Development, OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2020/03, Ana Moreno-Monroy, Jared Gars, Tadashi Matsumoto, Jonathan Crook, Ruediger Ahrend and Abel Schumann, 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/d63e9434-en.

  • Housing Policies in the EU, Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBSR), Max-Christopher Krapp, Martin Vaché, Björn Enger, Kai Schulze, Samantha Thomas, April 2022., available at: https://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/EN/publications/SpecialPublication/2022/housing-policies-in-the-eu.html.

  • Investment in affordable & social housing: Reaching the “Locked Out” in Europe. (2021). European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless, Brussels. FEANTSA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenna, P. (2005). Housing Rights and Human Rights. FEANTSA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenna, P., Nasarre Aznar, S., Sparkes, P., & Schmid, C. U. (Eds.). (2018). Loss of homes and evictions across Europe. Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lange, P. (2023). Öffentliche Wohnraumvorsorge. Mohr Siebeck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nasarre Aznar, Sergio. (2020). Los Años de la Crisis de la Vivienda, Valencia. Tirant lo Blanch.

    Google Scholar 

  • UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CSCER), M.B.D. and others v. Spain (Communication No. 5/2015), 5.07.2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ploeger, H., & Bounjouh, H. (2017). The Dutch urban ground lease: A valuable tool for land policy? Land Use Policy, 63, 78–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, C. U., & Jason, D. (2013). European dimensions of residential tenancy law. European Review of Contract Law, 9, 201–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, C. U. (2018). Towards a European role in tenancy law and housing policy. In idem (Ed.), Tenancy law and housing policy in Europe (p. 335). Edward Elgar.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, C. U. (Ed.). (2022). Ways out of the housing crisis: Tenure innovation and diversification in comparative perspective. Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of European Law and Politics (ZERP), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Christoph U. Schmid

Authors
  1. Christoph U. Schmid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph U. Schmid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Public Policy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Minna van Gerven

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Christine Rothmayr Allison

  3. Institute of Political Science, University of Münster, Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Klaus Schubert

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Social and Public Policy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Minna van Gerven

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Christine Rothmayr Allison

  3. Institute for Political Science, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

    Klaus Schubert

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Schmid, C.U. (2023). Housing Policy. In: van Gerven, M., Rothmayr Allison, C., Schubert, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Public Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_51-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_51-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-90434-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-90434-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation