Comparing social housing in the Netherlands and Denmark

The paper compares the Dutch and the Danish social housing systems, with a particular focus on recent reforms and on how social housing actors deliver in relation to the key housing policy objectives of anti-segregation measures, urban regeneration, comprehensive housing upkeep and green retrofitting of social housing. The comparison focus on two things in particular: 1) how social housing reforms influence the material and symbolic motives for social housing associations in the two systems to deliver in relation to these four objectives, and 2) How changes in governance relations between local governments and social housing associations impact the strategies developed by social housing associations in this regard. Drawing on the comparison, the paper suggests that Danish social housing actors lack clear incentives to become proactively involved in sustainable urban regeneration in the post-reform landscape of Danish social housing.