This research project focuses on subsidised housing – social, public, and affordable housing supported by direct or indirect subsidy, rented or sold below market rates, and allocated based on social, economic or political criteria. Subsidised housing is typically built at scale and low cost, often relying on standardised and repeatable design solutions.
The project studies the design, quality, regulation, and lived experiences of subsidised housing in six countries and cities: England (London), Chile (Santiago), China (Shenzhen), the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Spain (Barcelona), and Switzerland (Zurich), which represent a variety of housing provision systems and standards.
These six countries have distinct subsidised housing provision systems that determine not only how housing is supplied, managed, and accessed but also the quantity, type, affordability, and quality of housing. Housing systems can be defined by housing providers, tenures, target groups, and financing (subsidies).
Country | Provider | Financing | Form of tenure | Target Group |
England | Local authorities Housing associations | Government subsidies, Cross-subsisidies, Planning obligations | Social-rented | Socially and economically disadvantaged |
Affordable-rented | Low- to mid-income households | |||
Shared ownership | Mid-income households | |||
Chile | Private housebuilders | Government subsidies | Subsidised homeownership | Low-income households |
Mid-income households | ||||
China | Regional authorities' subsidiary companies | Government subsidies | Public rental housing | Low-middle-income households with urban household registration and housing difficulties. |
Affordable rental housing | Qualified new citizens, young people, and some high-skilled workers. | |||
Housing for talent workers | High-skilled professionals | |||
Shared homeownership | Middle-income households | |||
Netherlands | Housing corporations | Cross-subsidies, land subsidies, planning obligations | Social rented | |
Intermediate rented | ||||
Spain | Arms length municipal organisations | Cost-sale, cross-subsidies | Protected housing | Mid-income households |
Switzerland | Cooperatives | Cost-rent, government-backed credits, land subsidies | Cooperative housing |
These systems are context-specific, shaped by historical contingencies, regulatory practices, and housing supply and costs, and reflect socio-political agendas, such as welfare, social mobility, economic growth, and urban development.
Tenure distribution | Housing characteristics (average) | Affordability | Housing supply | ||||||||||||
Owner occupied (outright ownership) | Private rent | Affordable/social rent | House Flat | Dwelling size (affordable/social) | Household size | Rooms-per-person | Space-per-person (affordable/social) | Building age | House-price-to-income ratio | Expenditure-to-income ratio | Average social-to-private rent | Housing target, annual | New total supply | Affordable supply (ownership) | |
England | 65% (35%) | 19% | 16% | 79% 21% | 97m² (67m²) | 2.21 | 2 | 44m² (30m²) | 72% (<1980) | 8.3 | 32% | 43% | 300,000 [2024-29] | 212,570 [2022-23] | 27% (32%) [2022-23] |
London | 48% (24%) | 31% | 21% | 16 | |||||||||||
Chile | 57% | 26% | 0.10% | 79.5% 17.5% | 66m2 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 18 | 38.2% (<1991) | 15.6 | 27% | 52 | 65,000 [2024] | 36,000 [2022] | 16% (100%) [2022] |
Santiago | 53% | 33.80% | 67.3% 30.1% | 2.9 | 38.8% (<1991) | 18.7 | 28% | ||||||||
China | 81% | 12% | 2% | 111m² (<70m2) | 2.8 | 1.2 | 42m2 | 3% | 34.6 | - | - | 2,800,000 (public rental) [2021-25] | ~7,968,800 [2022] | 8% [2010-20] | |
Shenzhen | 77% | 72 | 30 | 40.1 | 600,000 (subsidised rental) [2021-25] | ||||||||||
Netherlands | 57% | 13% | 28% | 80 18 | 120m² | 2.1 | 2.1 | 53 | 62% | 7.2 | 26% | 52 | ~100,000 | 73,000 [2023] | 7,200 (10%) [2023-24] |
Amsterdam | 30% | 30% | 40% | 77m² | 40 | 65% | 10.3 | ||||||||
Spain | 75% | 15% | 3% | 34 66 | 94m² | 2.5 | 2 | 43m2 | 55 | 7.8 | 43% | - | 55,750 [2023-27] | 447,691 [2023] | 8847 20 [2023] |
Barcelona | 69% | 24% | 2% | 78m² | 2.3 | 63% | 10.7 | ||||||||
Switzerland | 36% | 58% | 4% (cooperative) | 34 63 | 99m² (78m2) | 2.2 | 1.8 | 47m2 (36m2) | 60 | 9.7 | 22% | 86% | - | 46,505 | ~2,000 [2022] |
Zurich | 8% | 65% | 27% (cooperative) | 97 | 11.2 |