Social Housing Investment without Public Finance: The Dutch Case

During the 1990s the Dutch government has reduced its financial support of social housing. the abolition of ‘brick-and-mortar’ subsidies and government loans has left housing associations with the challenge to fully finance their investments with capital-market loans and own resources. This paper discusses how housing associations respond to the diminished government support, focusing in particular on the problems related to the financial ‘mismatch’ of tasks and means between housing associations. Evidence from recent years shows that this problem cannot easily be solved.