Housing System Reform: Expert Opinions and Political Reality in the Netherlands

This paper describes to what extent a more or less collective feeling of urgency to reform the Dutch housing market is addressed in the political arena. By doing that, it sheds some light on the effectiveness and influence of academic research and recommendations on the political decision making process. We conclude that the suggestion of several advisory bodies to start a serious reform of the housing system in the Netherlands is, due to coalition considerations, almost fully neglected by the Rutte-Cabinet. Although there is a common understanding among experts and interest organisations in the Netherlands that the current housing systems needs radical changes, coalition politics in the Netherlands are apparently more important to explain current housing policies. We conclude that the effectiveness and influence of academic research and recommendations on the political decision making process was quite modest in the last couple of years and try to explain the gap between academic research and political decision-making on Dutch housing policy.