Reflections on the European Social Housing Model and Opportunities for Collaborative Housing from a Dutch Perspective

Abstract

This chapter briefly reflects on European social housing models and mainly discusses opportunities for housing cooperatives in the Dutch housing system. Since the introduction of the new Housing Act in 2015 in the Netherlands, there are legal opportunities for social housing tenants to form cooperatives. However, in practice, this does not happen a lot yet. From our analysis of the Dutch housing systems it is concluded that it is unlikely that it will take place on a larger scale, among others due to a lack of tradition (path dependency) and support from housing corporations – the main owners of social housing in the Netherlands.