Elderly and Housing Costs: Constraints in Mobility on the Housing Market

Abstract

The Dutch government stimulates elderly people to live independently as long as possible. For that purpose Dutch housing associations are charged with the duty to accommodate elderly people suitable. They are not only delivering services to their own tenants at higher age, but also trying to attract elderly people with a higher income from the owner occupied sector. However, it turns out not to be easy to tempt elderly home owners to move to the rental sector. One of the reasons is the difference in housing costs.The housing costs of households are not only set by the price of rent or mortgage but also by dwelling-related costs like energy and water. The accumulation of housing costs and costs of energy, the total housing cost, differ not only between the owner occupied sector and the rental sector but they also vary according to the stage of the life cycle of these households.Especially the housing costs of elderly residents are rather divergent. Are the housing costs of elderly tenants often comparable with other households in the rental sector, the cost of elderly home owners are significant lower. Lower than the costs of other households in the owner occupied sector as well as lower than the total housing costs of elderly tenants.The paper is based on an extensive survey on housing costs among elderly households in the region of Eindhoven. It explores the housing costs of two types of elderly households in both sectors: the 'young elderly households' (55-74 years) and 'elderly households' (>75 years) and tries to explain the difference.It also discusses the consequences of the difference in housing costs between these two forms of tenure for the possible shift from the owner occupied sector to the social rental sector.