EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - European cities learn from each other: Helsinki, Amsterdam and Stockholm exchange experiences in order to stimulate housing production.

European cities learn from each other: Helsinki, Amsterdam and Stockholm exchange experiences in order to stimulate housing production.

Introduction

In a joint exchange project, the cities of Amsterdam, Helsinki and Stockholm shared knowledge and experiences on the issue of housing production. The focus is on the different approaches in relation to the (local) housing policy.

Description

Housing production has been a hot topic in a number of European countries for some time. In the Netherlands, the concern about achieving the objectives at both national and local levels has led to policy initiatives and to adjustment of the available instruments.

In a joint project, the European cities Helsinki, Amsterdam and Stockholm exchanged knowledge and experience. The aim was to learn from each other in the area of promoting housing production. This article examines the interim results of the cooperative efforts.

Background information

Research shows that housing production in various European cities is at the least an area of attention and sometimes a source of concern. The exchange project came about more or less by accident. Representatives of the municipalities of Stockholm and Amsterdam who were attending an international conference in the autumn of 2003 happened to start talking about what was going on in their city. Housing production came up in the conversation and it was quickly established that this topic was high on the political agenda in both cities. An exchange therefore seemed worthwhile, including Helsinki, since that city has a comparable policy focus, which has already produced interesting results.

Methodology

Knowledge has been exchanged through mutual working visits, in which information was shared in onsite excursions and presentations. The City of Amsterdam Development Corporation eventually produced this article describing the preliminary results.

Conclusions

Helsinki achieves its targets for housing production. This has in any case been true in the last few years, and the prognoses are optimistic. Amsterdam is catching up and may make its targets for the 2002-2006 period. Stockholm almost certainly will not. The difference in successfully achieving the set targets cannot easily be attributed to just a few factors.

However, there are a number of areas where the cities can learn from each other, or work together in tackling specific problems:

Stockholm makes no distinction in housing development between free-market homes and social housing. Homes are built according to the market. Rent allowances put part of the housing supply within the reach of the lower-income groups. In Amsterdam, that would eliminate a lot of negotiations between the municipality and the corporations regarding unprofitable investments;
Introducing more flexibility in land allocation: by using growth ground-leases in difficult locations as in Stockholm, for example, or by choosing to sell the land instead of leasing it out as in Helsinki;
The way in which the municipality and developers work together in Stockholm and Helsinki to reduce construction costs definitely deserves more attention in Amsterdam;
The increasingly strict European environmental regulations are making inner-city housing pro-duction more and more difficult. This limits the flexibility that can be granted to developers to arrive at a plan that is in line with the market. Stockholm and Amsterdam in particular could learn more in their approach to this problem and stand together in their position toward conptu-alisation and implementation of European legislation.

Contact info

City of Amsterdam Development Corporation
http://www.oga.amsterdam.nl
Cor de Jong, tel. +31 6 52513817

Publication date

01/11/2005

Researcher

Cor de Jong

How to stimulate housing production. An exchange of expertise (PDF, Eng, 96 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing policy

Keywords

Housing need