While accounts of privatization in Europe have often focused on the sale of key state enterprises and public housing, the privatization of housing development has received less attention. Since the 1970s, European countries have increasingly abandoned mixed-economy models of housing development.
When those models were in place, publicly financed and publicly led development was critical for the delivery of new homes. It helped determine who housing was for, how secure and affordable it was, and how space was planned.
Since the 1970s, the task of housing development has been effectively privatized across much of the continent. It was once common to see construction of social and public housing at scale, state-owned housing developers and construction companies, and new urban developments based on public planning. Over the last few decades, European states have come to rely on these tools much less, or in many cases abandoned them altogether.
Instead, much of Europe has shifted to a development regime that is overwhelmingly dominated by private finance, private sector investment, and (especially) developers owned by financial players. Understanding this process is critical if we want to disentangle the different aspects of Europe’s housing crisis and find a way to escape from it.
After World War II, a ravaged Europe began to move toward a new model of capitalism. European countries developed more ambitious welfare states and adopted Keynesian models of demand management to deliver high rates of employment, with labor unions now playing a meaningful…
Auteur: Adam Peggs
