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Housing Policy

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Encyclopedia of Public Policy
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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...

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References

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Correspondence to Christoph U. Schmid .

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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

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

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-90434-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-90434-0

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