Housing Lab
The Knowledge Platform for the Housing Market
The Housing Lab generates and consolidates theoretical insights and practical knowledge about the housing market. The aim is to address questions from governments, businesses, and societal groups, providing a space where policymakers, professionals, and researchers can convene, exchange information, and find answers.
News
Making homes more sustainable leads to better health for children
Better insulation and ventilation in social housing means that children need less medication for asthma or allergies. This is the conclusion of a large-scale study involving two million people, monitored for 10 years by researchers from TU/e and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). It is the first study to show on a large scale that making…
Who benefits from financial support measures to stimulate home ownership among young buyers? New research by Max Löffler and Jonas Wogh
Many countries offer financial support to young buyers to make homeownership more easily accessible for the next generation. A high-profile policy in this respect was the 2021 Dutch “starter tax exemption” (startersvrijstelling OVB), which waived the standard 2% real-estate transfer tax for homebuyers under 35. The idea was simple: lower the barrier to entry for…
New research: Which house price data are suitable for housing market research?
Which house price data can researchers use? Ideally, one would use sales prices: the prices at which houses were actually sold. In practice, however, this data isn’t always available, or it only becomes available with a delay. Therefore, list prices or assessed values (such as the official tax assessments like WOZ values in the Netherlands)…
New research: How housing supply expansions reshape cities
In a recent article, Marco Giacoletti, Matthijs Korevaar and Franklin Qian study a large-scale policy relaxing residential land supply constraints near major Dutch cities in the mid-1990s (the so-called ‘Vinex policy‘). Land allocation was determined centrally and was unrelated to pre-policy local market dynamics. Using administrative data, the effects on housing, mobility, and labour markets…
New research: The social and economic impact of NV Zeedijk
What is the societal and economic value of NV Zeedijk? This question was addressed by Thomas de Graaff, Casper Klipp en Hans Koster. NV Zeedijk was founded in the 1980s to revitalize the then-deteriorated Zeedijk area in Amsterdam. By strategically purchasing, renovating, and actively managing properties, the organization – with the Municipality of Amsterdam as…