• The rise in total upfront cash requirement has become the main obstacle to homeownership in Germany. Between 2015 and 2024, the average household needed a median of 9.37 years to save the necessary funds for a home purchase. • A substantial share of this burden comes not from the price...

This paper examines the evolution of the Portuguese residential real estate market during the first twenty-five years of the 21st century, focusing on the short-run determinants of housing transaction values. Using quarterly data from 2000 to 2025, the study applies an econometric time-series...

We study a German policy intervention that shifted the statutory incidence of real estate agent commissions from buyers to sellers. Liability-side equivalence predicts no effect on economic incidence as sellers are expected to pass on the additional burden through higher prices. We use real...

We analyze macroeconomic determinants of residential building permits in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria using monthly data from 2000 to 2024, with selected variables interpolated from quarterly sources. Employing ARDL cointegration methods with bootstrap inference across...

This chapter presents an overview of the social housing system in Germany. Unlike in many other contexts, social housing in Germany is conceived as a temporary, marketcorrecting policy; therefore, the social housing function is limited in time. While partially provided by the state, it is...

This chapter examines how Portugal's housing policy has evolved over recent decades and how this trajectory has shaped the current housing crisis. It explores how core policy concepts - such as social and affordable housing - have been defined and implemented, revealing the logic and limits of...

The Serbian case illustrates the complex interplay between post-socialist transformations, market liberalisation, and the retreat of the state from housing provision. Despite a comprehensive legal framework, social housing (redefined in 2016 as "housing support") remains marginal, representing...

In recent decades, European housing systems have faced significant challenges, including rising socioeconomic inequalities, demographic shifts, welfare cuts, the financialization of housing markets, and ongoing affordability crises. The Delivering Safe and Social Housing (DASH) project, carried...

This study explores the European Union's role in Europe's housing crisis. While much attention has been given to the EU's impact on other welfare state sectors, housing remains underexplored. Using Aalbers' theory of housing financialisation and Scharpf's theory of positive and negative EU...

Refugees require assistance for basic needs like housing but local host communities may feel excluded from that assistance, potentially affecting community relations. This study experimentally evaluates the effect of a housing assistance program for Syrian refugees in Jordan on both the...

Refugees require assistance for basic needs like housing but local host communities may feel excluded from that assistance, potentially affecting community relations. This study experimentally evaluates the effect of a housing assistance program for Syrian refugees in Jordan on both the...

Macroprudential policies are a key policy tool for financial regulators, but concerns persist that these policies restrict access to homeownership. I examine this concern using crosscountry data on homeownership for 28 countries. I find little evidence that macroprudential policies reduce...

This study critically examines Shenzhen's centralized leasing initiatives aimed at transforming urban villages into Affordable Rental Housing (ARH) to address housing affordability for migrant workers. By analyzing three cases-the Ningmeng Talented Apartment (government-led), the Wancun Plan...

Our study investigates public opinion on the housing affordability crisis in Portugal through a nationally representative survey combined with an information provision experiment. Participants were asked to identify perceived causes of rising housing prices, assess their factual knowledge of the...

House prices have risen sharply across the European Union over the past decade, following cycles of boom, correction, and renewed growth, with recent increases driven by structural factors. This has outpaced income growth and reduced affordability, particularly in the context of higher interest...

The construction sector plays a key role in fostering economic growth and in ensuring housing affordability. However, the sector faces many challenges. Designing a framework that allows for productivity growth is essential, especially since the labour force is shrinking. Moreover, solutions have...

The construction sector plays a key role in fostering economic growth and in ensuring housing affordability. However, the sector faces many challenges. Designing a framework that allows for productivity growth is essential, especially since the labour force is shrinking. Moreover, solutions have...

Housing markets are affected by a large variety of factors. Among them, governmental regulations play an important role. Besides desired effects, all these policies exert a number of side effects, some of which can even offset the desired effects. In addition, different policies can cancel out...

This study explores the housing distribution effect of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) system on households. Utilizing data from the China Household Finance Survey conducted in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, this study empirically investigates this effect from two dimensions: the impact of HPF...

Between 1950 and 2023, the housing cost burden - approximated by the proportion of total household consumption expenditure spent on housing, water, electricity and fuel - has risen almost steadily in many countries around the world. First, this trend can be explained by substantial improvements...

Housing (un-)affordability has become a defining social and economic challenge in German cities, shaping both wealth accumulation and intergenerational inequality. We decompose affordability into two components: the ability to service monthly mortgage payments and the ability to meet the upfront...

Housing affordability is a crucial issue that affects both individual and societal well-being. Affordable housing ensures that households can meet their basic living needs without experiencing undue financial stress. It influences labor mobility, consumer spending, economic growth, and...

This paper develops a flexible discrete-choice demand framework for aggregate data sets that extends Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes (1995) and the Pure Characteristics Demand Model of Berry and Pakes (2007). I provide a simple, computationally tractable, asymptotically normal estimator based on two...

Housing cooperatives have a significant share in some countries, particularly in urban housing markets, and are supported by municipalities through tax breaks and preferential access to land. We examine the contribution of housing cooperatives to the provision of affordable housing and how they...