New article on Non-profit Housing Influencing, Leading and Dominating the Unitary Rental Market: Three Case Studies

A new article by Jim Kemeny, Jan Kersloot and Philippe Thalmann in Housing Studies

2005 Non-profit Housing Influencing, Leading and Dominating the Unitary Rental Market, Housing Studies, Vol 20, No 6, pp. 855-872.

Abstract

The distinction between dual rental systems and unitary rental markets is refined and developed. In particular, unitary rental markets are defined as markets in which barriers to non-profit providers competing on the rental market are removed, reserving the term 'integrated rental markets' for markets in which non-profit providers are sufficiently developed to be able to compete without the need for invasive regulation. The study also develops the distinction made in previous work between markets in which non-profit providers influence, lead and dominate the market. Case studies are then presented: Switzerland, where non-profit renting is weakly influencing, Sweden where it is leading, and the Netherlands where it is dominating. It is concluded that while in both the Netherlands and Sweden there is evidence of continual deregulation consistent with a tendency from unitary to integrated markets, there is no evidence of consistent change in that direction and even signs of some retrograde changes.