Alternative Models of Social Housing: Tenure Patterns and Cost-renting in New Zealand and Sweden

Abstract

This paper addresses three issues. First, the experiences in two relatively small, developed countries of establishing a social housing policy are discussed. Second, the movement from dualistic to unitary policies in both cases, and the early reversion to dualism in one of the cases, presents an interesting opportunity to compare the effectiveness of these alternatives. Third, economic pressures and the rise of neoliberalism from the 1980s have resulted in major changes in both countries, so the changes and their implications for housing costs and access can be briefly discussed and compared. The gist of the argument is that a partial solution to the problems of public housing is rent-averaging through cost-pooling within a tenure-neutral housing policy.