Understanding European Rental Systems

This paper examines the way in which US and British cultural influence has impacted on research and research agencies on comparative rental housing. It argues that certain conceptions of European rental systems in comparative housing research are based on the Anglo-Saxon model of rental markets. Consequently, much research unwittingly contributes to the political debates in such a way as to foster and encourage the adoption of Anglo-Saxon rental housing policies in Europe. The corollary of this is that other systems are not even recognized as existing, let alone highlighted, analyzed and understood. The work compares the Anglo-Saxon model of residualizing cost renting to a system of encouraging cost and profit renting to compete on the open market for households found in a number of countries including Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.