housing developments in european countries - Department of ...

Section 4
Outcomes
Outcomes Section 4
At the same time a number of European countries do
not currently allow the sale of social housing, while in
others the level of sales of social rented dwellings are,
for various reasons, negligible. It is interesting to note
that both of these categories include a number of the
new EU member States and applicant States which, as
mentioned above, privatised a significant proportion of
their State-owned housing stock in the early and mid
1990s.
The countries in which the sale of social rented
dwellings is prohibited are as follows:
■ Austria – it is not possible to purchase dwellings
owned by the municipality of Vienna but an
amendment to the Housing Act since 1994 offers
non-profit building associations the possibility to
convert rented dwellings into private ownership;
these ‘rent-purchase-flats’ were constructed with the
right to purchase the rented dwellings after a period
of ten years;
■ Denmark – legislation expressly prohibits the
conversion of non-profit social housing to homeownership
or co-ownership however, as was
mentioned in Section 2 of this review, the Danish
government has recently published a white paper
which examines the possibility of selling social
rented dwellings and employing the resultant funds
to construct new social housing;
■ Lithuania – sales of social rental housing units were
halted in 1998;
■ Romania – national legislation prohibits the sale of
social rented housing, and
■ Slovenia – since the privatisation of public housing
was completed in 1993, it is no longer possible for
rental housing to be transferred into individual
private ownership; this measure was introduced
because of the shortage of social housing, coupled
with the very low average incomes of social housing
tenants, which would raise difficulties for sales of
dwellings.
In addition, although sales of social rented dwellings
are allowed in Bulgaria, Estonia and Spain, in recent
years they have been limited by the very small size of
the social rented housing stock, coupled with the
increased emphasis by government on expanding the
rented housing stock. Social rented dwellings are sold
to tenants only very rarely in Luxembourg and
Finland, although in the latter, in recent years, some
1,500 dwellings have been released annually from
restrictions on use as social rental dwellings and some
of these have been converted to owner-occupancy,
mainly in areas where there is decreased demand for
social rented dwellings (or for housing in general).
Among the other countries examined in this review, the
governments of Belgium, Czech Republic, France,
Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom all reported
that sales of social housing are allowed and do take
place. The terms of the schemes for the sale of social
housing vary significantly between these countries. In a
number of countries including Belgium, the Czech
Republic and Italy, decisions regarding the sale of
social rented housing lie within the jurisdiction of local
or regional government. In most of the countries where
social dwellings have been privatised, dwellings have
been sold at a discount from their market value. The
discounts offered in the new EU member States are
particularly generous. In the Czech Republic, for
example, local authorities usually sell their own
dwellings at a very low price, taking into account the
fact that maintenance has been neglected in most
buildings. Co-operative rented dwellings built with
State assistance can also be sold and, considering that
most of the occupants of these have had to repay
construction loans as part of rental payments,
dwellings of this type are transferred without payment.
In Poland, the discounts offered to purchasers of social
rented dwellings are typically 80% of the market value
and higher. In a number of countries some parts of the
social rented housing stock cannot be sold. In the case
of Belgium, the Brussels Capital regional government
has prohibited sales since 1991. In Ireland social
dwellings rented from voluntary and co-operative
bodies cannot currently be sold, and although houses
rented from local authorities are available for sale,
apartments are not.
Disaggregated data on the extent of sales of social
rented dwellings between 1999 and 2003 are available
Table
4.3.1
Sales of Social Rented Dwellings in European Countries,1999-2003
Country Category 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
for a number of European countries. These are set out
in TABLE 4.3.1. In addition the available information
indicates that 84 social rented dwellings were
privatised in Malta between September 2001 and
September 2003, in Slovakia 248,393 social rented
dwellings and 104,497 co-operative rented dwellings
were privatised between 1989 and 2000. Data on sales
of social housing rented from local authorities in the
United Kingdom under the ‘right to buy’ scheme are
not available. However, the information which is
available indicates that 670,130 social rented dwellings
were sold to tenants by English local authorities
between 1990 and 2003.
This table demonstrates that in Belgium, France,
Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden, sales of
social rented dwellings have generally declined.
Although no nationwide data are available for the UK,
the available information indicates that this trend is
also evident in this country. Sales of local authority
rented dwellings to tenants in England have declined
No. No. No. No. No.
Belgium Sale of social housing in the Flanders Region Nav 620 490 581 Nav
Sale of social housing in the Wallonia Region Nav 70 112 52 Nav
France Social rented dwellings sold to occupants 3,887 3,513 3,245 3,620 Nav
Ireland Sales of local authority rented dwellings to tenants 2,256 1,844 1,411 1,195 1,567
Netherlands Sale of social rented dwellings 16,522 12,550 10,807 11,605 Nav
Poland Sales of dwellings owned or co-owned by municipalities 19,999 19,295 18,287 Nav Nav
Sweden Sales of dwellings rented from non-profit municipal housing companies Nav 24,000 Nav 6,700 Nav
Note: Data for the following countries are not available: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom.
from 76,332 in 1990/1991 to 51,496 in 2003. In some
cases this trend is related to the introduction of
restrictions on sales by government. The Swedish
government has recently restricted the rights of the
municipal housing companies to sell off all or part of
their non-profit housing stock. Permission is only given
if this will not disturb the rent-setting process in the
municipality. According to the Swedish rent-setting
system, the costs of the municipal non-profit housing
companies provide the point of departure for setting
the level of rents that will be charged for other rented
housing. The rent for a privately owned rental
dwelling may not substantially exceed the rent for an
equivalent dwelling rented from a non-profit housing
company in the same locality. In the UK, measures
contained in the Housing Bill which is currently being
considered by the UK parliament aim to reform the
right to buy scheme for local authority housing to
ensure it is not exploited by private companies and
that the scheme does not undermine the stability of
communities.
140 European Union Report
Regular National Report on Housing Developments in European Countries
141