Recent changes in Spanish housing policies: subsidized owner-occupancy dwellings as a new tenure sector?

Abstract

The conventional model of social housing in Spain is a peculiarity within European housing policy, in that it is almost entirely owner-occupied. Subsidized owner-occupancy housing maintains the status of social housing for a set number of years, during which time it cannot be sold against market prices. After that period, its status changes, and the housing concerned becomes part of the free housing market. However, recent developments in Spanish housing policy suggest that this model might change in the future. In some Spanish regions, subsidized owner-occupancy housing is now considered as a separate and permanent tenure category and not as a temporal subsidy arrangement. This paper discusses the background and the possible implications of this new policy perspective.