https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6640-0988
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ABSTRACT
The private rental sector (PRS) is making a surprising comeback. A central argument in our paper is that we see the rise of PRS and the associated stagnation of homeownership as springing from the contradictions inherent to financialized homeowner societies. Rather than a feature of either mature or late homeowner societies, contradictions of the promotion of homeownership through the expansion of mortgage markets paved the way for a revival of the PRS. Our case is the Netherlands, but our argument has a wider remit. We sketch the dominant trends in Dutch housing policy and present an overview of the rise of PRS and Buy-To-Let in Dutch cities. We identify how housing policies and realities have driven a shift from a debt-driven to a wealth-driven model of financialization, in which the demand for PRS as an investment class and as a place to live has become central.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to think the reviewers as well as the members of “The Real Estate/Financial Complex” research group for their comments on an earlier draft. Thanks also to Paul de Vries (Kadaster) for kindly sharing the aggregated Land Registry data. This paper is based on a report by the authors (Aalbers et al. 2018) commissioned by the Dutch Socialist Party.
Notes
1. This is the 2018 income limit, subject to annual inflation corrections.
2. All rents above €720 are liberalized, while those lower than that are regulated. The €1000 rent is considered the maximum reasonably affordable for middle-income groups.