The Amsterdam Metropolitan Housing Market: How a Prosperous Metropolitan Area Co-exists with a Central City Dominated by Social Rental Housing for the Poor

Abstract

In this Chapter we describe the development of Amsterdam Metropolitan Housing Market over the years. We start-off with a discussion of the historicaldevelopment of Amsterdam and its suburban areas. There we address how main contextual factors like wars, financial crises and prosperity have shaped the housing market. Having briefly described the historical development, we then turn to the development in size, structure snd composition of the housingstock as well as in size and composition of the population. Here, we also discuss the impact of physical planning policy. It turns out that particularly the post-WW II reconstruction policy has affected the urban form, structure and housing stock of the housing market. Subsequently, we address issuesrelated to housing demand, paying alsoattention to rent regulation, tenure, and housing allocation. In our discussion we pay attention to the spatial differences between neighborhoods within Amsterdam, and between Amsterdam and its surrounding suburban areas. One of the peculiarities of Amsterdam Metropolitan Housing Market turns out to bethe large social rental market. In some large neighborhoods in the city of Amsterdam the share of social housing is above 75%. Although new(re)construction led to increased homeownership the owner-occupier market is still relatively small. The large social rental market in the city ofAmsterdam coincides with a relatively low average disposable household income, and a relative large share ofhouseholds receiving rent assistance. Most households who live in Amsterdam Metropolitan Area also work there, with Amsterdam being the most importantemployment center of Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.