Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the link between housing tenure types and housing deprivation in 26 European countries. Empirical analyses are based on European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2007, enabling comparisons of deprivation across a large set of countries. A multilevel framework is employed. It is hypothesized that the organization of the rental sector inherently produces different housing market dynamics, which is likely to affect housing deprivation rates. An integrated rental sector covering broader parts of the population is expected to reduce the risk of housing deprivation. Housing deprivation is measured in terms of experiencing overcrowding and while also suffering any of the following accommodation problems: a leaking roof; no bath/shower; no indoor toilet; or a dwelling considered too dark. The findings indicate a negative association between the size of the rental sector and the prevalence of housing deprivation. The organization of the rental sector appears crucial and only an integrated rental sector encompassing broader parts of the population significantly reduces the prevalence of housing deprivation and its components. This association is robust in terms of confounding factors at the individual-level and central country-level contextual variables.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for the useful comments provided on earlier drafts by Kenneth Nelson and Tommy Ferrarini. Thanks are also due to Eva Andersson and Bo Malmberg for helpful discussions and making the data-set EU-SILC available for analysis. The author would also like to thank three anonymous referees for their constructive comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are the responsibility of the author alone.