Housing Inequalities : The Space-time Geography of Housing Policies

Changes in policy over the last thirty years, particularly within advanced economies, have allowed for increased financialization, deregulation and globalisation of housing. What differentiates real-estate from other financial markets is that it possesses a salient socio-spatial geography. Housing inequalities are often framed as an outcome of macro-economic structural changes or as a product of local socio-spatial conditions, but the interactions between the two are less understood. Using nearly 20 years of historical data across a range of socio-spatial dimensions from the City of Rotterdam, we develop a descriptive methodology to connect the analysis of national housing policy phases in the Netherlands with local socio-spatial trajectories of neighbourhood change. Whilst nationally there has been an increasing policy preference for home ownership associated with a narrative of social upliftment, the spatial-temporal analysis reveals that these policies have failed to disrupt local neighbourhood hierarchies with the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Rotterdam benefitting the most from capital gains and increased rates of home ownership. Overall, the findings emphasise that national housing policies, in their current form, fail to address widening housing inequalities by neglecting to consider the varying socio-spatial characteristics and needs of different neighbourhoods