The impact of housing policy changes on housing associations: Experiences in the Netherlands

For decades, housing associations in the Netherlands were the country's lan dlords of social rented housing par excellence. Presently housing associati ons own and administer over 90 per cent of the social rented stock, which n ow comprises 37 per cent of the total Dutch housing stock. The changes in D utch housing policy which were made from 1993 onwards, have also changed th e role and position of the housing associations. The financial ties binding the social housing sector and the national government have largely been di ssolved. Responsibility for adequate housing was decentralised from the cen tral government to the local authorities. Municipalities and housing associ ations have developed a new tradition of performance agreements on local ho using policy. This paper reviews the response of housing associations to th e circumstances created by the new housing policy of the 1990s.