The Unravelling of Amsterdam’s Unitary Rental Market

The Netherlands had been considered a key example of a ‘unitary’ rental market in which social and private rental sectors are in direct competition with each other. This unitary market has been more recently undermined however, by changes in the status of housing associations, the privatization of social housing stock and the promotion of home ownership.

Indeed, since the 1990s, the Dutch housing system has undergone dramatic change featuring a fundamental reorientation in its housing tenure structure. This contribution considers the reorientation of the housing system with an empirical focus on the urban context of Amsterdam. Drawing on a geospatial analysis of neighbourhood level data and the biennial ‘Living in Amsterdam’ surveys, we illustrate how the unitary rental market, which helped establish Amsterdam as an iconic ‘just city’, is unraveling.