Housing market filtering in the Oslo region: pro-market housing policies in a Nordic welfare-state context

Abstract

Vacancy chain theory suggests that mobility opportunities spread within and between specific states, typically flowing from attractive to less attractive units, with households moving in the opposite direction. We explore whether such welfare gains obtain in a context, the Oslo region, which combines egalitarian welfare programmes and pro-market housing policies. We use merged census and register data from 2011, and include all events that initiate vacancies. Our results show that rental submarkets function poorly. There are many vacancies, but most of them are immediately absorbed by recruits, i.e. households who leave no vacancy behind. Opportunities for disadvantaged groups are further reduced by rapid absorption of owneroccupied flats, often because privileged nest-leavers eschew the rental markets. Two related outcomes are segmentation between submarkets and segregation between Oslo Outer East and the remaining city. All of these adverse consequences reflect the costs of current policies, and call for initiatives that increase and improve opportunities in the rental sector.

Trivsel og usikkerhet på Tøyen: En studie av foreldrebilder av et løftet byområde

“…Den norske byforskningen har etter hvert produsert en rekke studier som belyser og forklarer flyttemønstre, saerlig i hovedstaden. Denne kvantitativt-orienterte litteraturen viser -eller gir indikasjoner på -hvordan blant annet økonomi, boligmarkedets «innretning», boligtypologier, nabolag, nabolagenes sosiale profiler og stigma virker inn på byboernes mobilitet (Barlindhaug, 2017;Galster & Magnusson Turner, 2019;Hansen & Brattbakk, 2005;Magnusson Turner & Wessel, 2013;Turner & Wessel, 2019;Wessel mfl., 2018;Wessel & Nordvik, 2019). Kvalitativt-orienterte studier som forsøker å gå mer «i dybden» på familiers flyttehistorier, er det faerre av (i de mange studiene fra Alnaprosjektet er flytting i liten grad tematisert (se f.eks.…”

Raising children in the inner city: still a mismatch between housing and households?

“…With such a background, one should not expect a large extent of family gentrification. In addition, there is also a tendency for high-income families to buy dwellings for their offspring in expensive parts of the inner city (Magnusson Turner & Wessel, 2019). It is highly likely that these dwellings are sold at a later stage, typically when children become parents themselves.…”

Examining building age, rental housing and price filtering for affordability in Melbourne, Australia

“…Examining building age, rental housing and price filtering for affordability in Melbourne, Australia. Urban Studies, 004209802092783. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020927839 for wealth creation and security during retirement (Ronald and Kadi, 2018).These investors can write off the losses from their residential investment properties through negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions (Verdouw et al, 2018).Unlike the UK, Australia has extremely low provision of social housing, at only 4.3% of housing stock (Groenhart and Burke, 2014),down from a peak of 8% in 1966 (Hayward,1996). Dwellings frequently move in and out of rental tenure in this investor-focused policy context, and as a result, little is known about the condition and amenity that these homes yield.…”