Access to Housing and Social Inclusion in a Post-Crisis Era: Contextualizing Recent Trends in the City of Athens

Thomas Maloutas,Dimitra Siatitsa,Dimitris Balampanidis

doi:10.17645/si.v8i3.2778

Thomas Maloutas, Dimitra Siatitsa + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v8i3.2778

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Abstract

The way housing affordability evolved since WW2 in Greece—and in its capital city in particular—is an example of how the South European welfare system managed, for several decades, to provide socially inclusive housing solutions without developing the services of a sizeable welfare state until global forces and related policies brought it to an end. The increased role of the market in housing provision since the 1980s, the rapid growth of mortgage lending in the 1990s, the neoliberal policy recipes imposed during the crisis of the 2010s and the unleashed demand for housing in the aftermath of the crisis have led to increased housing inequalities and converged the outcome of this South European path with the outcome of undoing socially inclusive housing solutions provided by the welfare state in other contexts. The article follows longstanding and recent developments concerning the housing model in Greece and especially in the city of Athens, focusing on mechanisms that have allowed access to affordable housing for broad parts of the population during different historical periods, and examines the extent to which the current housing model remains inclusive or not. The aim here is to discuss the most important challenges concerning access to decent housing and highlight the need for inclusive housing policies to be introduced into the current social and political agenda.

Highlights

Contextual Diversity of Housing Affordability and the Greek CaseCrises are usually assumed to deepen social inequalities in relatively short periods of time
We provide an overview of longstanding and, more importantly, recent developments concerning the housing model in Greece and especially in the city of Athens, in other words, concerning the mechanisms for the production of and for the access to housing
Housing affordability has not been a major issue in Athens since the second half of the 20th century—apart from the recovery period from war damages in the immediate post-war years— housing conditions were problematic, and needs were constantly increasing in a city of rapid growth

Summary

Introduction

Crises are usually assumed to deepen social inequalities in relatively short periods of time. Those with less than 20 square meters per capita decreased from 40.5% to 21.5% and those with more than 30 square meters per capita increased from 26.4% to 45.6%; and homeowners increased from 65% in 1991 to 66.4% in 2011 (National Centre for Social Research and the Hellenic Statistical Authority [EKKE-ELSTAT], 2015) This improvement of housing conditions, was not a permanent trend from the early post-war period to the crisis. During the current socalled post-crisis period, with the real estate sector growing significantly following the sharp increase of tourist demand and investment interest, housing affordability is severely at stake, especially for the most vulnerable and unprotected population groups, such as the unemployed, the elderly, migrants and refugees, often faced with extreme conditions of housing precariousness and deprivation (Section 5). Access to housing during that period was mainly provided through two housing provision systems: selfprovided affordable housing in the city’s urban fringe and affordable apartment housing in the city center through the land-for-flats system (Leontidou, 1990; Maloutas, 1990; Prevelakis, 2000)

The Self-Promotion of Affordable Housing

The Land-for-Flats System

The Progressive Demise of the Access to Affordable Housing Since the 1990s

The Impact of the Crisis on Housing Affordability

Findings

Conclusion