Mixed Neighbourhoods: Effects of Urban Restructuring and New Housing Development

Many E uropean countries use mixed housing policies to decrease the spatial concentration of low‐income households. Also in the N etherlands, social housing in deprived neighbourhoods is demolished and replaced by more expensive dwellings. The idea is that these new dwellings attract higher‐income groups to urban restructuring neighbourhoods. At the same time, however large numbers of relatively expensive dwellings have been built on greenfield locations. This leads to a dilemma: will higher‐income households choose housing in deprived neighbourhoods, while attractive new housing on greenfield locations is available? This study shows that urban restructuring attracts higher‐income households to mixed tenure developments in deprived neighbourhoods, even when competing with greenfield development. Nevertheless, another process is also taking place: especially in urban regions with extensive greenfield development; there is a significant outflow of higher‐income households from deprived neighbourhoods. The net result is an increasing concentration of low‐income households in deprived neighbourhoods.