Exemplary Cases

Swedish Tenants’ Union – advocacy in negotiating tenant and landlord agreements

All tenants of rented housing in Sweden, including for-profit and non-profit provision, have the right to be involved in negotiating rents and tenancy conditions. This builds on a distinctive history of rented housing regulation which treats all forms of rented housing the same.

Inclusionary zoning law in the United Kingdom

The two main sources of investment in new social housing in the United Kingdom are central government funding and planning agreements between private developers and local authorities, under which the developer contributes land, housing or cash as a condition of planning permission.

Affordable Housing Bonus Program, density bonus schemes in California

In a density bonus scheme, a developer is permitted to build a larger project on a site than would otherwise be permitted, in exchange for including specific elements such as a certain percentage of affordable housing units. In some cases, a developer can contribute land or funds for creating off-site affordable housing.

Housing Construction Savings Bank of Kazakhstan

The Housing Construction Savings Bank (HCSB), founded in 2003, is modelled on the German bausparen system of contractual savings for housing. It is the only Kazakhstani bank which employs this model to fund mortgage lending.

Renovation coaches

In several countries, “renovation coaches” have been introduced to guide building owners, for example, on cost-efficient renovation procedures[1].

Horizonti Microcredit Foundation in North Macedonia

Horizonti is a specialist microfinance provider in North Macedonia. It was founded in 2000, currently has eight branch offices around the country and provides microfinance for agriculture, business and housing.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations – Turning household savings into social housing

CDC centralizes government-backed savings accounts called ‘Livret A’ and makes a proportion of these available to fund loans for social housing provision.  Livret A savings accounts are available in all French banks; they are popular because they offer an attractive interest rate, tax-free, and state guaranteed.  There are around 50 million such accounts in France, with a current deposit cap of EUR 22,950. At the end of 2020, French households had EUR 411 billion in savings in CDC-managed savings accounts. 

Representation of German tenants and insurance company providing legal protection

In Germany, private renters can join a tenants’ association, called a Mieterbund or Mietervereine. These represent tenants’ interests and offer members advice on tenancy contracts, utility costs and tenancy laws.

Allowances for low-income households – Lithuania, Slovakia, France, the Netherlands

Several programmes have been successfully launched to provide financial support to low-income people to compensate for renovation and energy costs. The “Habiter Mieux” (Better Living) programme was created in France in 2010.

Rent subsidies for homeless people in Hungary

After decades of privatization, the Hungarian social housing stock is small by Western European standards, but the need for affordable housing is great.

Capacity-building in professional housing management in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Efficient and qualified housing administration is a prerequisite for the modernization of the rapidly deteriorating housing stock in Central Asia.

Mietspiegel rent regulation system in Germany

Points system for rent setting in the Netherlands

The Dutch government applies a points-based system[1] to assess housing quality and determine the maximum price for renting it.

Limited Profit Cooperatives in Switzerland

Renting is the dominant tenure in Switzerland (65 per cent), largely provided by individual private landlords and institutional landlords. There is a small diverse social housing sector comprising 1,700 non-profit organizations, primarily small cooperatives and social housing foundations, associations and municipal housing companies. Together these provide about 14 per cent of total rental housing stock, mostly as flats and row housing in urban area

Wohnfonds Wien – a land bank for the public good

It has taken only a few decades for Wohnfonds Wien to become a powerful public-interest player in the land market of Vienna, thereby ensuring the ongoing production and management of affordable housing for many of the city’s residents. 

INFONAVIT Mexico: Carlos Martinez, General Director

GENERAL DIRECTOR OF INFONAVIT

National Agency for the Inspection of Social Housing (ANCOLS) – France

All French social landlords are governed by strict rent and allocation regulations. Their capital investments are also tightly regulated, and they are subject to a housing construction code and inspection regime specifically concerning construction and management of housing for low-income households.

85 Social Housing Units in Cornellà

85 dwellings, 543 spaces and 2172 corners For the 10,000 m2 of built surface area of the new building in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), consisting of 85 social housing units laid out on five levels, a total of 8,300 m2 of zero kilometre timber from the Basque Country has been used.

LIFE REUSING POSIDONIA/ 14 social dwellings in Sant Ferran, Formentera

Life Reusing Posidonia is a Climate Change Adaptation Project financed by the European LIFE + program for nature conservation projects.

Residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market

Owner-occupied artists’ workshops and apartments, cooperative housing and studios, space provision for social associations and commerce were part of the programme, which would establish a new building group and hence lay the foundation for the residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market.

Performative Brise- Soleil

Translating constraints into spatial abundancy: Vertical free space for subsidized housing The architectural invention of the Performative Brise-Soleil turns an “impossible” housing location into exciting spatial opportunities, undermining the scarce realm of subsidized housing with abundant free spaces.

Occidentului 40

A house that moves vertically.

Equity investment in new social housing – Austrian providers generating their own investment capital

Well-managed social housing providers can accumulate their own equity to invest in further social housing provision. 

Corneille Koppelaar – United Kingdom

International Director Place for People Group. 

Hélène Chartier – Reinventing Cities

Director of Urban Planning and Design at C40 Cities

Madrid Nuevo Norte

Madrid Nuevo Norte is the urban regeneration project that will transform Madrid. It is based on a dense, compact and mixed urban model, structured around public transport, pedestrian mobility, citizen participation and a sustainable boost to the economy. 

Vienna Wohnfonds: Nicole Büch and Silvia Hofer, Wohnfonds

Corporate Communications and Hauskunft - wohnfonds_wien

Housing Finance Agency of Ireland – Dublin, Ireland

The Housing Finance Agency (HFA) was established in 1982 and is a public limited company wholly owned by the Irish government.

Gaetan Siew – Mauritius

Special Envoy for the Republic of Mauritius. Committee of Permanent Representatives of UN-Habitat.

DeFlat Kleiburg

De Flat is an innovative renovation of one of the biggest apartment buildings in the NL called Kleiburg, a bend slab with 500 apartments, 400 meter long, 10 + 1 stories high. Consortium De FLAT rescued the building from the wracking ball by turning it into a Klusflat meaning that the inhabitants renovate their apartments by themselves.