Housing Allowances and Private Renting in Liberal Welfare Regimes

Abstract

The paper explores the relevance of the concept of a liberal welfare regime to housing provision through an exploration of the interactions between governments, private markets and households in rental housing in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. In particular, it examines the extent of dualism in these four countries in the financing, ownership and management of rental housing and the types of social guarantees offered by governments to households in different rental sectors. The paper concludes that the welfare regime concept has some relevance in explaining dualism in rental housing in the four countries, as reflected in different types of guarantees offered to households through social housing and housing allowances. It finds, however, that there is passive rather than active government support for private rental markets and that different institutional arrangements in the four countries lead to differences in the extent of government support for private renters.